02-1178 Peters v. City of Mauston

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“Peters first argues that the district court improperly held that the heavy lifting from which Dr. Hoeft restricted him is an essential function of the Operator’s job. The City, not surprisingly, asserts that such lifting is an essential function because the Operator must be able to perform all of the daily operational and construction tasks assigned to Laborers, which include all kinds of lifting and carrying. Because we do not second-guess the employer’s judgment as to the essential functions, we affirm the district court’s determination that lifting, heavy or otherwise, is an essential function of the Operator’s job. DePaoli v. Abbott Labs., 140 F.3d 668, 674 (7th Cir. 1998). Even Peters admits that heavy lifting is required at times, and his argument that such lifting is infrequent does not preclude it from being an essential function of the job. See Basith v. Cook County, 241 F.3d 919, 929 (7th Cir. 2001) (‘an essential function need not encompass the majority of an employee’s time, or even a significant quantity of time, to be essential’).

“We now turn to Peters’ requested accommodations. Peters requested two possible accommodations, neither of which this Court finds reasonable. Peters first requested that someone else do the heaviest lifting for him if he could not handle it, which the district court found unreasonable. We agree and hold that such a request is unreasonable because it requires another person to perform an essential function of Peters’ job.

“Second, though the district court did not address this issue, we hold that Peters’ proposed ‘try and see’ request is also unreasonable. Allowing the employee to return to work to see if he can complete the job is the wrong test as to whether an accommodation is reasonable. See Koshinski v. Decatur Foundry, Inc., 177 F.3d 599, 603 (7th Cir. 1999). The employer is not obligated to allow the employee to try the job out in order to determine whether some yet-to-be requested accommodation may be needed. While the law gives the disabled employee the right to perform the job without a reasonable accommodation, the City determined that Peters could not safely perform the tasks assigned to an Operator because of his permanent, physician-imposed lifting restrictions. Given the permanent nature of those lifting restrictions at that time, we cannot say that Peters would have been able to complete the job without a reasonable accommodation. Absent any other reasonable request for an accommodation, the City need not incur additional liability to ‘try and see’ whether Peters can handle the job despite his permanent lifting restrictions.”

Affirmed.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, Crabb, J., Bauer, J.