BECK v. HONDA MANUFACTURING OF INDIANA, LLC
Filing
130
ORDER denying Defendant's 75 Motion for Summary Judgment. (See Order). Signed by Judge James R. Sweeney II on 3/6/2020. (MAC)
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF INDIANA
INDIANAPOLIS DIVISION
SARAH J. BECK,
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Plaintiff,
v.
HONDA MANUFACTURING OF INDIANA, LLC,
Defendant.
No. 1:18-cv-00174-JRS-DLP
Entry on Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment
Plaintiff Sarah J. Beck alleges claims for disability discrimination against her former employer, Defendant Honda Manufacturing of Indiana, LLC. Specifically, Beck
alleges both failure-to-accommodate and disparate-treatment claims under the
Americans with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. § 12111 et seq. See Scheidler v. Indiana,
914 F.3d 535, 540–41 (7th Cir. 2019) (recognizing that separate disparate-treatment
claims and failure-to-accommodate claims are possible under the ADA).
Honda
moves for summary judgment. Construing all the facts and reasonable inferences in
Beck’s favor, as required for purposes of summary judgment, the Court concludes that
genuine disputes of material fact preclude judgment as a matter of law. See Fed. R.
Civ. P. 56(a). Honda’s motion (ECF No. 75) is therefore denied.
Failure to Accommodate
The ADA requires employers to provide “reasonable accommodations that will allow a ‘qualified individual with a disability’ to perform the essential functions of his
or her job.” Brown v. Milwaukee Bd. of Sch. Dirs., 855 F.3d 818, 820 (7th Cir. 2017)
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(quoting Miller v. Ill. Dep’t of Transp., 643 F.3d 190, 197 (7th Cir. 2011)). “A claim
for failure to accommodate under the ADA . . . requires proof (1) plaintiff was a qualified individual with a disability; (2) defendant was aware of his disability; and (3)
defendant failed to accommodate his disability reasonably.” Scheidler, 914 F.3d at
541. An individual is “qualified” within the meaning of the ADA only if she is able
“with or without reasonable accommodation, [to] perform the essential functions of
the employment position such individual holds or desires.” 42 U.S.C. § 12111(8).
Hence, “a worker has no claim under the ADA if she, even with a reasonable accommodation, cannot do the job for which she was hired.” DePaoli v. Abbott Labs., 140
F.3d 668, 674 (7th Cir. 1998).
Honda contends that Beck’s ADA claims fail because she could not perform the
essential functions of her position.
According to Honda, Beck’s permanent re-
strictions were “(1) no reaching or lifting above chest level, (2) no commercial driving,
and (3) may lift floor to waist 1 pound frequently.” These restrictions, Honda argues,
rendered Beck incapable of performing certain requirements of Beck’s production associate position listed in the job description: “frequent overhead reaching,” “operating
machinery such as forklift, overhead cranes and vehicles,” and “lifting and carrying
parts, max 40 lbs.” 1 (Def.’s Br. 17 (citing Tate Decl., Ex. 2, ECF No. 76-4)). Beyond
Beck contends that Honda cannot rely on the written job description because it was not provided to
Beck before or during her employment and therefore “cannot be considered a written job description
prepared before advertising or interviewing Ms. Beck before commencement of her employment with
Defendant.” (Pl.’s Br. 22.) Beck cites 29 C.F.R. § 1630.2(n)(1)(ii) for this proposition, but § 1630.2(n)(1)
has no subparts. Presumably Beck intends to rely on § 1630.2(n)(3)(ii), which provides that “[e]vidence
of whether a particular function is essential includes, but is not limited to . . . [w]ritten job descriptions
prepared before advertising or interviewing applicants for the job.” The regulation does not require
that such job descriptions be provided to the employee, and the uncontroverted evidence shows that
the job description was prepared prior to the events at issue here—that is, there is nothing to suggest
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the general requirements listed in the job description, Honda argues that Beck’s restrictions specifically disqualified her from working in any of Honda’s departments:
Beck could not work in Vehicle Quality because she could not drive or lift the 26pound vehicle bonnet; Beck could not work in Paint and Plastics because she could
not reach above chest or shoulder level; Beck could not work in Body Manufacturing
because she could not reach or lift overhead or lift more than one pound; and Beck
could not work in Assembly Frame because she could not reach or lift overhead, and
the bolt gun weighs more than one pound. (Def.’s Br. 17.)
Honda’s argument fails to account for critical evidence about the scope of Beck’s
restrictions—namely, that those restrictions applied only to Beck’s right arm. Beck’s
restrictions arose from a workplace injury to her right shoulder. (Beck Decl. ¶ 9.)
Beck underwent surgery for her shoulder and returned to work, restricted temporarily to left-handed work with breaks to ice her shoulder and no commercial driving.
(Id. ¶¶ 10–12.) Beck was released from treatment for her right shoulder with permanent restrictions of “no reaching or lifting above chest level, no commercial driving,
and may lift floor to waist one pound frequently.” (Id. ¶ 13.) Beck testifies that those
restrictions applied only to her right arm. (Id.) The doctor’s written restrictions
state:
Permanent Restriction
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No reaching/lifting above chest level
No commercial driving
that the job description was prepared post hoc in anticipation of litigation. Accordingly, the job description is properly considered in determining the essential functions of the production associate position.
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May lift floor to waist 1 pound frequently
(Beck Dep., Ex. 1, ECF No. 77-1 at 2.) Directly above the handwritten restrictions,
in a field labeled, “Extremity,” the box for “Right” is checked. (Id.)
A factfinder could reasonably determine that Beck’s restrictions applied only to
her right arm. “Because Congress perceived that employers were basing decisions on
unfounded stereotypes, the ADA discourages employment decisions based on stereotypes and generalizations associated with the individual’s disability rather than on
the individual’s actual characteristics.” Hoffman v. Caterpillar, Inc., 256 F.3d 568,
573 (7th Cir. 2001) (quotation marks and citations omitted). Beck testifies that she
could perform various production associate roles, and Honda’s designated evidence
does not compel the inference that Beck could not perform the various job functions
with her left arm. See id. (“The ADA recognizes that a non-disabled person’s instincts
about the capabilities of a disabled person are often likely to be incorrect. Therefore,
a determination that two-handed people use both of their hands to operate the highspeed scanner, or even a determination that most one-handed people would be unable
to run it, should not be the end of an employer’s inquiry.”).
Along these same lines, there is evidence that Beck’s position did not require a
commercial driver’s license. (Beck Decl. ¶ 14.) Honda’s designated evidence does not
compel the inference that Beck’s commercial driving restriction precluded her from
performing whatever driving was required of production associates. Accordingly, a
reasonable factfinder could conclude that Beck was a qualified individual with a disability within the meaning of the ADA.
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Honda further argues that it is entitled to summary judgment because it reasonably accommodated Beck’s restrictions by providing temporary, light-duty positions
and then 16 months of medical leave. “Reasonable accommodation under the ADA is
a process, not a one-off event.” Scheidler, 914 F.3d at 542. The light-duty positions
may well have discharged Honda’s duty to accommodate for as long as they lasted,
but they did not last beyond May 2016, when Honda placed Beck on long-term medical leave. The medical leave—which Beck did not seek—is not a reasonable accommodation that discharges Honda’s duty to accommodate under the ADA, as “the term
‘reasonable accommodation’ is expressly limited to those measures that will enable
the employee to work.” Severson v. Heartland Woodcraft, Inc., 872 F.3d 476, 479 (7th
Cir. 2017). “Simply put, an extended leave of absence does not give a disabled individual the means to work; it excuses his not working.” Id. at 481. Honda’s reassigning Beck to light duty and then placing her on medical leave does not entitle Honda
to judgment as a matter of law on Beck’s failure-to-accommodate claim.
Disparate Treatment
“A claim for disparate treatment based on disability under the ADA . . . requires
proof (1) plaintiff was disabled; (2) plaintiff was qualified to perform essential functions with or without reasonable accommodation; and (3) disability was the ‘but for’
cause of adverse employment action.” Scheidler, 914 F.3d at 541. Honda first argues
that summary judgment on Beck’s disparate-treatment claim is appropriate because
Beck was not a “qualified individual with a disability.” (Def.’s Br. 19.) That argument
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fails for the reasons discussed above. Next, relying on the McDonnell Douglas burden-shifting framework, Honda argues that Beck has not established a prima facie
case of discrimination because Beck has not identified any similarly situated, nondisabled employees. (Id.) Honda further argues that Beck has not adduced any evidence that Honda’s reasons for terminating her employment were pretext. (Id. at 20.)
As the Seventh Circuit has explained, McDonnell Douglas is not one-size-fits-all.
David v. Bd. of Trs. of Cmty. Coll. Dist. No. 508, 846 F.3d 216, 224 (7th Cir. 2017).
The fundamental question in employment discrimination cases is “simply whether
the evidence would permit a reasonable factfinder to conclude that the plaintiff’s [disability] caused the discharge or other adverse employment action.” Ortiz v. Werner
Enters., Inc., 834 F.3d 760, 765 (7th Cir. 2016). McDonnell Douglas is just one tool
for answering that question by “organizing, presenting, and assessing circumstantial
evidence in frequently recurring factual patterns found in discrimination cases.” David, 846 F.3d at 224.
It is not the appropriate tool for this case. Here, Honda itself states in its brief
that Honda “terminated Beck because it did not have an open position for which she
was qualified and for which she could perform the essential functions of the position
with or without reasonable accommodation.” (Def.’s Br. 20 (quotation marks and
brackets omitted).) A reasonable factfinder could, from that quoted portion of the
termination letter, find that Beck’s disability caused her termination. “The purpose
of the McDonnell Douglas burden-shifting approach is to allow a plaintiff to raise an
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inference of discrimination even in the absence of direct evidence. It would be redundant to require a plaintiff to utilize the burden-shifting method to raise a presumption
of discrimination if he or she possesses direct evidence of discrimination.” Hoffman
v. Caterpillar, 256 F.3d 568, 574 (7th Cir. 2001) (internal citation omitted). Indeed,
applying the McDonnell Douglas framework here produces absurd results: Honda
argues that Beck’s claim fails because she has not proven pretext—i.e., that Honda
was lying when it told her she was fired because of her disability. (Def.’s Br. 20.)
Honda’s argument, in other words, would require Beck to disprove her case to prove
it. Honda is not entitled to summary judgment on Beck’s disparate-treatment claim.
Failure to Mitigate Damages
Honda also moves for summary judgment on its affirmative defense of failure to
mitigate. See Stragapede v. City of Evanston, Ill., 865 F.3d 861, 868 (7th Cir. 2017)
(“A plaintiff who wins a favorable verdict on an ADA claim is presumptively entitled
to backpay. The plaintiff must submit evidence to support his calculation of backpay,
and the burden then shifts to the defendant to show that the employee failed to mitigate damages or that damages were in fact less than he asserts.”) (internal quotation
marks, brackets, and citations omitted). Honda does not move for an order limiting
damages to some subset of Beck’s claimed damages; it moves for dismissal of Beck’s
claim for damages. (Def.’s Br. 22.) Beck claims damages beginning with her placement on medical leave in May 2016. (ECF No. 111-3 at 3.) But Honda’s submissions
do not address when Beck’s duty to mitigate arose—namely, whether Beck’s duty to
mitigate began when she was placed on medical leave or sixteen months later, when
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she was terminated. See Fleming v. Cty. of Kane, Ill., 898 F.2d 553, 561 (7th Cir.
1990) (limiting award for loss of wages to the period during which the plaintiff’s efforts to secure new employment were reasonable). With neither evidence nor argument regarding when Beck’s duty to mitigate arose, Honda has not carried its burden
to prove failure to mitigate so as to warrant dismissal of Beck’s entire claim for damages on summary judgment.
Evidentiary Matters
There are various evidentiary objections outstanding. Honda objects to the declarations of Britney Thomas and Rhonda Cook, contending that the two declarants
were not disclosed and that their declarations contain hearsay. Honda’s motion for
summary judgment falls short without considering those declarations, so the Court
does not reach the issue. Beck objects to the second declaration of Brandon Parker.
Summary judgment is not warranted even taking Parker’s declaration into account;
the Court does not reach the issue.
Conclusion
For the reasons set forth above, Honda’s motion for summary judgment (ECF No.
75) is denied.
Date: 3/6/2020
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SO ORDERED.
Distribution:
J. Kevin King
CLINE KING & KING PC
mjn@lawdogs.org
Jennifer Ann Rulon
FROST BROWN TODD, LLC
jrulon@fbtlaw.com
Heather L. Wilson
FROST BROWN TODD LLC (Indianapolis)
hwilson@fbtlaw.com
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