Employment Law

• Date: 01 January 2017
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/nba.30274
• Published date: 01 January 2017

10

JANUARY 2017NONPROFIT BUSINESS ADVISOR

© 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company • All rights reserved

DOI: 10.1002/nba

Employment Law

Here’s a look at several recent notable lawsuits involving nonprots. Nonprots should regularly review

employment laws and their compliance efforts to avert similar issues.

Disability Discrimination

Former employee’s ADA suit

to go forward

Earl Beaton was diagnosed with schizophrenia in

1985. His symptoms included depression, anxiety,

paranoia, mental instability, auditory hallucinations

and the belief that other people could read his mind.

Beaton took Fluphenazine for his condition, and

that medication permitted him to maintain stable

periods without schizophrenia symptoms. However,

one of its side effects was drowsiness.

Beaton disclosed his medical condition to the

New York City Transit Authority a year after he

began working there in 1994.

He was promoted to the position of station agent

in 2000.

In 2013, Beaton took two Fluphenazine pills

within a span of three hours while working an

overnight shift. According to Beaton, he had never

before taken two pills in such a short amount of

time, and the high dosage made him feel extremely

drowsy. Shortly after 5:00 a.m., Beaton closed his

eyes. About ve minutes later, a supervisor accused

him of sleeping on duty and rejected Beaton’s ex-

planation that he had not been sleeping. Beaton was

immediately suspended.

He was red after a hearing ofcer also ignored

his version of the facts.

Beaton led a suit that asserted several claims.

One of them was discriminatory termination in

violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The Transit Authority led a motion to dismiss

the complaint.

District Judge Edgardo Ramos ruled that, in

light of the broad standard afforded by the ADA, it

was plausible that Beaton was disabled because the

schizophrenia substantially limited his participation

in major life activities.

The judge observed that Beaton had alleged that

the entirety of his employment as a station agent

occurred well after his schizophrenia diagnosis and

his many years of successful treatment, and then

ruled that it was plausible that Beaton could usually

perform the essential functions of his job, despite the

single incident of alleged misconduct. He therefore

ruled that Beaton had sufciently alleged that he

was “qualied” within the meaning of the ADA.

EMPLOYEE WINS ➔ The judge characterized

Beaton’s theory as straightforward, reciting the al-

legations that he: (1) appeared to be sleeping on the

job because of medication that was required by his

disability; (2) explained to his supervisor that medi-

cation for his disability caused his eyes to close but

was immediately suspended nonetheless; (3) again

explained both his disability and the effects of his

medication during the hearing process; and (4) was

still ultimately terminated soon thereafter.

Judge Ramos ruled that those allegations made it

plausible that the termination was motivated by Bea-

ton’s disability, and he refused to dismiss the claim.

The judge acknowledged that the Transit Authority

might very well come up with evidence of nondis-

criminatory reasons for the termination—such as

showing that Beaton had engaged in misconduct,

or violated a “nal warning” agreement—but ruled

that such evidentiary disputes were not appropriate

in the pleading stage of a case.

[Beaton v. New York City Transit Authority, U.S.

District Court for the Southern District of New

York, No. 15 Civ. 8056, 06/15/2016].

Gender Discrimination

Petty slights don’t justify suit

For a period of 10 years beginning in 2002,

North Babylon High School teachers John Jaeger

and Kristy Middleton were married to each other.

However, they began divorce proceedings in 2012.

After Middleton obtained a temporary order of

protection against Jaeger in the summer of 2013,

she made numerous complaints to the district that

he was harassing her.

As a direct result of Middleton’s complaints, Prin-

cipal Jonathan Klomp met with Jaeger to discuss

his “emotional stability.” Also during that month,

the district informed Jaeger it was in the process of

investigating his alleged harassment.

In April 2014, Jaeger led a charge of gender-

based employment discrimination against the

district with the Equal Employment Opportunity