Discrimination

Listen to this article

7th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Barbara J. Wells v. Winnebago County, Illinois

Case No.: 15-1805

Officials: BAUER, EASTERBROOK, and HAMILTON, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Discrimination

Summary judgment properly granted against appellant for discrimination claims.

“She needed to establish that the County was required to treat her references to anxiety as notices of a link between her disability and her working conditions that would set off the process of considering possible accommodations. Even in this litigation she has not offered medical evidence demonstrating that a reasonable employer would understand every mention of an employee’s anxiety as a disability or understand, without medical knowledge, how anxiety and chronic fatigue syndrome are related. Certainly Wells did not provide such evidence to her employer. “[O]ur cases have consistently held that disabled employees must make their employers aware of any nonobvious, medically necessary accommodations with corroborating evidence such as a doctor’s note or at least orally relaying a statement from a doctor, before an employer may be required under the ADA’s reasonableness standard to provide a specific modest accommodation”. Ekstrand v. School District of Somerset, 583 F.3d 972, 976 (7th Cir. 2009).”

Affirmed

Full Text

Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.