The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to revive an employee’s disability discrimination claim last week, upholding a lower court’s judgment in favor of Missouri-based St. Luke’s Health System in a case involving a former supervisor with multiple sclerosis (Mobley v. St. Luke’s Health System, Inc., No. 21-2417 (8th Cir. Nov. 16, 2022)).
In 2017, the employee requested accommodation to telework whenever his MS flared, but St. Luke’s denied the request and instead suggested he could use paid time off or Family and Medical Leave Act leave. St. Luke’s denied a second request in 2018 and told the employee that he could ask his manager to telework on a case-by-case basis during a flare up. The employee “recalled only one instance” where such a request was denied under this arrangement, according to court documents.
The employee resigned in 2018 and then sued St. Luke’s, alleging discrimination on the basis of disability, gender and race; failure to accommodate; and retaliation under the Americans with Disabilities Act and state law. A district court granted summary judgment for St. Luke’s, and the employee appealed only the court’s ruling on his disability discrimination and failure-to-accommodate claims. The 8th Circuit affirmed.
In its ruling, the 8th Circuit diverged from the district court on one aspect of the case. The lower court held that the employee failed to demonstrate he could perform the job’s essential functions with or without a reasonable accommodation. But the 8th Circuit concluded that “a genuine dispute of material fact exists” as to whether the employee could do so via his proposed accommodation of teleworking during a flare up.
Managers at St. Luke’s such as the plaintiff were allowed to telecommute one day a week per company policy and two days per week as of 2018, the 8th Circuit said. Moreover, the plaintiff’s manager allowed direct reports additional teleworking days on a case-by-case basis. In doing so, St. Luke’s “implicitly demonstrated a belief that [the employee] could perform his essential job functions without being in the office all the time,” the court said, noting that the employee continued to receive positive performance reviews despite teleworking.
“In support of summary judgment, St. Luke’s emphasizes the opinions of its management team who preferred that [the employee] work in the office on all but his regularly scheduled teleworking days,” the 8th Circuit continued. “Yet nothing in the record indicates that had [the employee] been permitted to telework for an additional unquantified number of days during flare-ups, his job performance would have been inadequate.”
Nonetheless, the employee’s claim did not survive summary judgment because he failed to show that St. Luke’s did not engage in the interactive process. The health system’s conversations with the plaintiff, which led to the organization allowing him to ask for telework on a case-by-case basis, supported the district court’s finding that St. Luke’s engaged in the interactive process, per the 8th Circuit.
The ruling comes during a time in which employers may face questions about their return-to-work policies and whether they are still fulfilling their duty to accommodate employees with disabilities, for example, by offering flexible work policies.
