Skip to main content

Your Boss Stresses You Out & You Claim It Is a Disability? Might Want to Reconsider That Disability Discrimination Claim


Higgins-Williams v. Sutter Medical Foundation - California Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District


Facts:  Michaelin Higgins-Williams ("Higgins-Williams") worked as a clinical assistant in Sutter's Shared Services Department.  Higgins-Williams reported to her treating physician that she was stressed because of her interactions with human resources and her manager.  After her physician diagnosed her with "adjustment disorder with anxiety", Sutter granted Higgins-Williams a stress related leave of absence for about 30 days.  

After Higgins-Williams returned to work, she received a negative performance evaluation and had additional conflicts with her manager.  Not long after, Higgins-Williams submitted a disability accommodation request form and sought to transfer to a different department and obtain an additional leave of absence.  After additional leaves of absence that last almost a year, Sutter terminated Higgins-Williams.

Higgins-Williams subsequently filed suit against Sutter and alleged disability discrimination, wrongful termination and other related claims.  The trial court granted Sutter's motion for summary judgment.

Holding:  In considering Higgins-Williams' appeal, the Court of Appeal first looked to what disabilities were recognized in California's Fair Employment and Housing Act ("FEHA").  In this instance, Higgins-Williams alleged she suffered from an anxiety and stress induced disability as a result of her supervisor.  However, the Court was quick to rely upon prior caselaw which held that "an employee's inability to work under a particular supervisor because of anxiety and stress related to the supervisor's standard oversight of the employee's job performance does not constitute a disability under FEHA. 

Judgment:  The California Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court's grant of summary judgment in favor of Sutter on the grounds that Higgins-Williams was not disabled, as recognized under the Fair Employment and Housing Act, simply because of her inability to work under a particular supervisor because of anxiety and stress related to the supervisor's oversight of Higgins-Williams' work.

The Takeaway:  Employees, let this case be a reminder to you:  Just because your boss/supervisor stresses you out and causes you some anxiety does not mean you are necessarily disabled and have a valid disability discrimination claim if you are terminated.  I think it is safe to say that we have all had a boss at one point or another who caused us to lose sleep, get our blood pressure up, etc.  However, that alone does not necessarily mean a disability discrimination claim exists.  If that were the case, I think the courts would be even more overrun than they already are...

Majority Opinion Judge:  Judge Butz

Date:  May 26, 2015

Opinion:  https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCEQFjAAahUKEwi5uMC12oXHAhUQD5IKHQm8D5k&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.courts.ca.gov%2Fopinions%2Fdocuments%2FC073677.PDF&ei=H5e7VfmsDZCeyASJ-L7ICQ&usg=AFQjCNFgg87XaAnwK_6FFOBGa6vNhtb_lg&sig2=aF0lEtRr0eoMMxytcK9eOA&bvm=bv.99261572,d.aWw

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NLRB: Discussion Among Employees About Tip Pooling is Protected Concerted Activity

  This Advice Memorandum from the National Labor Relations Board’s Associate General Counsel, Jayme Sophir, addressed whether employees which discussed and complained about tip pooling at work constituted protected concerted activity. In relevant part, an employer in New York operated a chain of steakhouses.  While tip pooling was in place at these steakhouses, some of the employees objected to it on the grounds that it was not transparent and improperly divided tips among the workers.  Employees were told not to complain or talk to each other about the tip pool and were told that doing so would endanger their jobs.  Despite the employer later attempting to provide some clarity as to how the tips were being divided, rancor still existed among some employees.  At one point, the employees were told by a general manager that some employees that had been talking about the tip pool were “cleared out” and the employer would continue to do so. In the Advice Memorandum,...
Post a Comment
Read more

Utah Non-Compete Bill Falters in House

Last month, a non-compete bill sponsored by Representative Brian Greene (Republican from Pleasant Grove) & up for vote in the Utah House failed to make it through the Legislature.  The bill sought to ban enforcement of non-competes if they came after a worker was already employed, given no compensation (such as a bonus or promotion) for signing the non-compete, and laid off within six months.  However, by a 22 - 49 vote, the bill was resoundingly defeated after some business groups lobbied to kill the non-compete bill.  One group in particular, The Free Enterprise Utah coalition, argued that the Utah State Legislature should hold off on any changes to non compete laws in the state until a survey about non competes was done among Utah businesses.  Representative Greene had countered this claim and argued that a survey was not needed to show that the current non compete laws in the states allowed many businesses, including some small high tech companies i...
Post a Comment
Read more

What I've Been Reading This Week

Recently, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Commissioner, Chai Feldblum, had her re-nomination on the brink, after Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee took steps to block it .  Readers might have heard that late last week, Commissioner Feldblum's re-nomination quietly slipped away and she tweeted out a thank you to supporters and friends, acknowledging that her time at the EEOC was over.  While there has not been much in the way of a further update in regard to that ongoing saga, we wait to see how things will play out at the EEOC, now that it has lost a quorum until additional Commissioners are confirmed by the Senate. For the time being, there are other developments for readers to review this week.  In particular, I call attention to the article on managing a wage & hour audit by the Department of Labor as well as steps an employer can take to better ensure compliance with the ADA. As always, below are a couple articles that caught my eye this week. ...
Post a Comment
Read more