Americans With Disabilities Act/Family and Medical Leave Act

Moorer v. Baptist Mem'l Health Care Sys., No. 03-5855, 03-5965 (6th Cir. Feb. 11, 2005)

A hospital executive sued a health care system, alleging the system terminated him in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"), the Age Discrimination in Employment Act ("ADEA"), and the Family Medical Leave Act ("FMLA"). The executive was terminated after taking medical leave to undergo treatment for alcoholism at the request of the system. The executive's supervisor viewed the executive's alcohol problem as a substantial impairment of his ability to perform his job, and stated that his termination and work-related problems were caused by his alcoholism.

The court first addressed the executive's ADA and ADEA claims and held that the executive had been terminated in violation of both statutes. The court stated that, while alcoholism would not normally qualify as a disability under the ADA, the health system's belief that the disease substantially impaired the executive's ability to work brought the disease into the scope of the ADA. Therefore, because the executive's alcoholism played a major role in the health system's decision to terminate him, and because the system viewed the disease as substantially impairing the executive's ability to perform his broad range of work, the court held that the executive had been terminated in violation of both the ADA and ADEA.

The court next addressed the executive's contention that his termination was in violation of the FMLA. The FMLA entitles an employee to take 12 weeks of medical leave because of a serious health condition that makes the employee unable to perform his work-related duties. The court stated that an employee on FMLA leave may be terminated only if the dismissal would have occurred regardless of the employee's leave. The court held that there was a genuine issue of material fact of whether the executive's dismissal would have occurred regardless of his medical leave because his dismissal was related to the alcoholism which caused him to take medical leave. Accordingly, the court reversed the lower court's dismissal of the executive's FMLA claim.