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Employer's Refusal to Reassign Disabled Employee to a New Position Does NOT Necessarily Amount to a Disability Discrimination Claim


Raiford v. Maryland Dept. of Juvenile Services - United States District Court for the District of Maryland


Facts:  Gregory Raiford ("Raiford") was a Resident Advisor ("RA") with the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services ("DJS") at a youth detention facility.  In his position as an RA, Raiford was in charge of providing care and supervision to youth offenders.  In June 2010, Raiford was injured while separating juveniles who were in a fight.  

After he initially returned to light duty work at the gatehouse, which did not involve contact with the juveniles, he underwent surgery on his knee and took about three months to recover.  In April 2011, Raiford's doctor recommended that he return to the gatehouse for his light duty work.  However, DJS could not accommodate this request and gave Raiford another month of leave.  During that time off, DJS required Raiford to undergo a workability evaluation to determine if he could perform the essential functions of his RA position with or without reasonable accommodation.  It was soon determined he could not.

DJS advised Raiford that he could either apply for a vacant opening, pursue a rehabilitation program, or resign.  DJS further advised Raiford that several accommodation requests had been considered and rejected.  

Raiford subsequently chose to resign and sue.  He alleged that DJS failed to accommodate him under the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act when it refused to reassign him permanently to the gatehouse position.  Raiford claimed that DJS had an obligation to reassign him to a job he was qualified to do.

Holding:  In analyzing Raiford's claim, the District Court looked at the defenses raised by DJS.  In particular, DJS argued that Raiford could not establish a valid claim because assigning Raiford to the gatehouse position would "effectively eliminate the undisputed essential function of the RA Trainee position"...to provide direct care and supervision to the youths.  As a result, the Court held that based upon this line of reasoning, Raiford could not prevail on his claims against DJS. 

Judgment:  The District Court granted summary judgment in favor of DJS and held that Raiford failed to provide any evidence that a permanent reassignment to the gatehouse position would enable him to perform the essential functions of his RA position (which required him to supervise the youths).

The Takeaway:  This case reminded me of the Nealy v. City of Santa Monica case from back in April (Nealy v. City of Santa Monica - Blog Post).  As with that case, this Court ruled in favor of the employer for similar reasons:  an employer cannot necessarily be required to eliminate essential job functions in order to reasonably accommodate an employee's medical condition.  The key thing to keep in mind here is whether an employer can reasonably accommodate the employee.  Based upon what Raiford was hired to do in his RA position, DJS simply could not make a reasonable accommodation for him after his knee injury.

Majority Opinion Judge:  Judge Chasanow

Date:  July 21, 2015

Opinion:  cases.justia.com/federal/district-courts/maryland/mddce/8:2012cv03795/222917/64/0.pdf?ts=1437567748

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