CM Team Wins Summary Judgment for School District
Congratulations to Paige Neel, Dan Polsby, Don Sampen and Joe Van Aalst who obtained summary judgment for Clausen Miller’s school district client. The case involved an ADA discrimination and retaliation lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. The plaintiff diesel mechanic alleged harassment and retaliation based on his disability and occurring after he made a formal complaint of harassment. After deposing Plaintiff and presenting several witnesses, we filed a summary judgment brief in which we argued that: 1) Plaintiff filed his charge of discrimination with the EEOC after expiration of the applicable statute of limitation and 2) any allegations that fell within the 360-day limitation period did not constitute actionable conduct under the ADA.
Judge Pallmeyer wrote a 20-page opinion granting the motion in its entirety as to all counts. The court agreed that Plaintiff waited to file his charge of discrimination for more than a year after Plaintiff’s supervisor made fun of his speech impediment (caused by ALS) at a meeting. The defendant also fired the employee who made the offensive comment, which meant that Plaintiff could not claim a continuing violation of the ADA.
Only two events occurred during the 360-day period before Plaintiff filed his charge of discrimination: the defendant denied his request to take breaks whenever he wanted and denied his request for tool reimbursement while he was on disability leave. The court agreed with our argument that neither one rose to the level of actionable discrimination.
Paige M. Neel
Daniel L. Polsby
Don R. Sampen
Joseph J. Van Aalst