Curry County v. Robert Dark
Americans With Disabilities Act: Reasonable Accommodation
In a case alleging discriminatory discharge under the Americans with Disabilities Act, on a motion for summary judgment, Public Citizen is co-counsel for the respondent employee who is waiting to be able to proceed to make his case on the merits in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Questions presented:
- Where a municipal body, acting in a judicial capacity, reviews a termination decision made by a subordinate employee, and affirms it on grounds that are independent and nondiscriminatory, and where there is no evidence adduced that the county had any discriminatory motive — is there a genuine issue of discriminatory discharge?
- When events demonstrate as a matter of law that no accommodation would have enabled him to perform the essential functions of his job — is there a genuine issue of whether he could have been reasonably accommodated?
- When he offers no evidence as to when any vacant jobs became available, what the jobs were, and whether he could perform the essential functions of any of the jobs — is there a genuine issue of whether he could have been reasonably accommodated through reassignment?
Brian Wolfman of Public Citizen was co-counsel for the respondent at the cert stage, and the Supreme Court denied cert.