Legal updates

Swanson v. Village of Flossmoor, Case No. 14-3309

Argued: June 5, 2015—decided July 24, 2015

On July 24, 2014 the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the District Court Judge Joan B. Gottschall’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the Village of Flossmoor on a failure to accommodate claim brought pursuant to the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) as well as claims of race and national origin discrimination brought pursuant to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VII”).

In this case, the Plaintiff suffered two strokes, six weeks apart, the second of which left him unable to perform his job duties as a detective for the police department. The Plaintiff claimed that upon return from work after his first stroke the Village failed to reasonably accommodate him in violation of the ADA because it did not permit him to work exclusively at a desk. The Plaintiff also claimed that the Village discriminated against him on the basis of his race and national origin based on various comments that were made to him by Village employees during the course of his employment with the Village. The Plaintiff also argued that he was excluded from certain investigations after his first stroke.

The Seventh Circuit affirmed the District Court’s ruling that the Plaintiff’s Title VII claims were time-barred because the Plaintiff failed to make a formal complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission within the required 300-day window. Moreover, the Seventh Circuit found that even if his claim was not time-barred, the plaintiff would not prevail on the merits because he failed to show that any material harm resulted from the adverse employment actions he alleges. (“[N]ot everything that makes an employee unhappy will suffice to meet the adverse action requirement. Rather, an employee must show that material harm has resulted from … the challenged actions.”)

The Seventh Circuit further affirmed the finding the Plaintiff’s ADA claim was deficient because the Village accommodated the Plaintiff by allowing to him work a part-time schedule as recommended by his doctor and take paid and unpaid medical leaves of absence. The Court noted, “the Village’s accommodation (and, frankly, its general treatment of Swanson in the wake of his medical issues) seems quite reasonable here.”

Accordingly, the Seventh Circuit affirmed the District Court’s decision to dismiss all of the Plaintiff’s claims.