A Capehart Scatchard Blog

Employee With Work Injury Was Properly Denied Reasonable Accommodation Request

Kim Mason was injured on March 22, 2011 falling off her UPS delivery truck and injuring her wrist, requiring surgery.  She reached maximal medical improvement in October 2011. Several months later she requested accommodations for her wrist disability under the ADA.  Her surgeon completed a form which indicated that Mason could not perform all the functions of her current UPS driver position without certain accommodations.  The doctor gave Mason a 25 pound lifting restriction with ability to lift 10 pounds occasionally.

Mason met with Human Resources regarding her accommodation request.  She suggested that she could be accommodated by obtaining a position without the requirement of lifting heavy packages, noting management training and package center supervisor positions.  She also identified other jobs like customer counter clerk, safety, and other less physical positions as suitable for her to perform.  She noted that during her 17 years with UPS she had performed many of these jobs that she was asking to be considered for.

There was no question that Mason could not continue to perform her current job as a delivery truck driver because it involved heavy lifting. HR noted that Mason had the education, skills and experience to perform many of the jobs that she requested transfer to, but unfortunately there were no current openings.  UPS has an ADA committee, and the committee made a final determination that there simply were no jobs available for Mason to perform.  The company kept looking for union jobs during the next six months but none came open.

UPS employees who sought management positions in the company were required to go through the company’s “Management Assessment and Promotion Process” or “MAPP.”  To initiate the process, the employee had to submit a written letter of interest to UPS, and this letter had to be submitted for every year that an employee wished to be considered for a management position.  Letters of interest expired every December 31st.  Once a letter is submitted, the employee’s supervisor would conduct an initial assessment with scoring in a number of areas.  If an employee passed the first phase, then there were additional steps for the MAPP process.  This MAPP process became pivotal because two positions opened up at the Huntsville, Alabama location that did not require handling packages.  They were not union positions but management positions.  UPS notified Mason regarding these two open positions but Mason had not even started the MAPP process and was unavailable.

Thereafter Mason initiated the first phase of the MAPP process.  Her supervisor gave her a score  between two and three.  A score of 3.5 was required to pass the initial assessment, so Mason was never considered for promotion to a supervisory position in 2012.

From February 2012 to April 2013 several union job openings occurred at the Huntsville facility but all of them required physical functions far in excess of Mason’s restrictions.  Mason alleged that there were people doing some of these jobs who were receiving help in heavy lifting of packages, including the position of customer clerk.  One employee (Ms. Pender) gave testimony that she did get assistance from others on the heavy lifting aspects of the job.

Mason sued under the ADA asserting that UPS failed to accommodate her disability.  UPS moved to dismiss the case by arguing that Mason was not a qualified individual because she could not perform the essential functions of her job or the jobs she desired.  The district court agreed, and Mason appealed to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.  The Court said that it was Mason’s burden to identify the accommodation she needed and then show that it is reasonable.  The Court rejected Mason’s argument that UPS should have considered her for a management position.  “The ADA does not mandate that employers promote disabled employees in order to accommodate them.” (citation omitted).  Regarding Mason’s argument that other employees would be available to help on the heavy lifting, the Court said:

Mason’s restrictions would require her to leave every package weighing more than 25 pounds and some packages weighing between 10 and 25 pounds for other employees to deal with.  Given that evidence in the record reflects that the Huntsville center is small and leanly staffed, and requires all employees to perform their functions, Pender’s testimony is again insufficient to create a genuine factual dispute regarding the impact requiring another employee to assist Mason with any package weighing more than 25 pounds would have on the package center’s operations.  Thus, this requested accommodation is not reasonable.

In the end, the Court deferred to UPS’s job descriptions on what the lifting requirements were for each job and how the Huntsville facility functioned.  The Court found that Mason failed to prove she was a qualified individual, and therefore UPS had no duty to accommodate her disability.  The case can be found at Mason v. United Parcel Service Co. Inc., 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 400 (11th Cir. 2017).  It demonstrates several points: first, how easily a workers’ compensation injury can lead to ADA litigation; second, how important job descriptions are in establishing essential functions of the job; third, if any employee cannot show he or she is qualified to do the job, there is no duty to accommodate.

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About the Author

About the Author:

John H. Geaney, Esq. is a Shareholder and Co-Chair of Capehart Scatchard's Workers' Compensation Group. Mr. Geaney began an email newsletter entitled “Currents in Workers’ Compensation, ADA and FMLA” in 2001 in order to keep clients and readers informed on leading developments in these three areas of law. Since that time he has written over 500 newsletter updates.

Mr. Geaney is the author of Geaney’s New Jersey Workers’ Compensation Manual for Practitioners, Adjusters & Employers. The Manual is distributed by the New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education (NJICLE). He also authored an ADA and FMLA Manual also distributed by NJICLE. If you are interested in purchasing “Geaney’s New Jersey Workers’ Compensation Manual for Practitioners, Adjusters & Employers,” please contact NJICLE at 732-214-8500 or visit their website at www.njicle.com.

Mr. Geaney represents employers in the defense of workers’ compensation, ADA and FMLA matters. He is a Fellow of the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers of the American Bar Association. He is one of two firm representatives to the National Workers’ Compensation Defense Network.

A graduate of Holy Cross College summa cum laude, Mr. Geaney obtained his law degree from Boston College Law School.

Mr. Geaney was selected to the “New Jersey Super Lawyer” list (2005-2017, 2021 in the area of Workers’ Compensation). Only 5% of attorneys are selected to “Super Lawyers” through a peer nominated process based on independent research and peer evaluation. The Super Lawyers list is issued by Thomson Reuters. For a description of the “Super Lawyers” selection methodology, please visit https://www.superlawyers.com/about/selection_process.html

For the years 2022-2024 Mr. Geaney was selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® list in the practice area of Workers’ Compensation Law - Employers. The attorneys on this list are selected based upon the consensus opinion of leading lawyers about the professional abilities of their colleagues within the same geographical area and legal practice area. A complete description of The Best Lawyers in America® methodology can be viewed via their website at https://www.bestlawyers.com/methodology.

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Capehart Scatchard is a full service law firm with offices in Mt. Laurel and Hamilton, New Jersey. The firm represents employers and businesses in a wide variety of areas, including workers’ compensation, civil litigation, labor, environmental, business, estates and governmental affairs.

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