Stern v. St. Anthony’s Health Ctr. – June 2015 (Summary)

AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT – REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION

Stern v. St. Anthony’s Health Ctr., No. 14-2400 (7th Cir. June 4, 2015)

The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed a district court’s grant of summary judgment to defendant health center, which terminated its Chief Psychologist due to short-term memory deficiencies that rendered the psychologist unfit for duty. The psychologist sued the health center under the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), claiming that the health center failed to engage with him in an interactive process to find reasonable accommodations that would permit him to continue his employment. The health center argued that the reasonable accommodations suggested by the psychologist were contingent upon eliminating essential functions of the Chief Psychologist position, which is not something that is required by the ADA. The court agreed with the health center, noting that even though job restructuring can be required as a reasonable accommodation, it is typically done for duties that take up less than five percent of a person’s work time. Here, the responsibilities that the psychologist wanted to have eliminated from his job duties were supervisory and administrative and took up anywhere from 45 to 80 percent of the Chief Psychologist’s time.