Bassett v. Walsh

CourtDistrict Court, District of Columbia
DecidedAugust 4, 2023
DocketCivil Action No. 2022-2408
StatusPublished

This text of Bassett v. Walsh (Bassett v. Walsh) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, District of Columbia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bassett v. Walsh, (D.D.C. 2023).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

CONRAD BASSETT,

Plaintiff, v. Civil Action No. 22-2408 (JEB)

MARTIN J. WALSH, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor,

Defendant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Plaintiff Conrad Bassett is an employee at the Department of Labor. In this suit against

Labor Secretary Martin J. Walsh, he alleges that the Department violated the Rehabilitation Act

by refusing him reasonable accommodations, discriminating against him based on his disability,

and retaliating against him. Defendant now moves to partially dismiss, contending that many of

Plaintiff’s claims are unexhausted, unavailable under the Rehabilitation Act, or unsubstantiated.

The Court agrees that none of the challenged claims may proceed and will accordingly grant the

Motion.

I. Background

The Court at this stage sets forth the facts as pled in the Complaint, assuming them to be

true. See Sparrow v. United Air Lines, Inc., 216 F.3d 1111, 1113 (D.C. Cir. 2000). Bassett has

worked at the Department since 1994 and now works as a Government Information Specialist in

the Wage and Hour Division. See ECF No. 16 (Second Am. Compl.), ¶¶ 8–9. “At all times

relevant to the Complaint,” Genise Coleman and Patrice Rachel Torres were his first-line and

second-line supervisors, respectively. Id., ¶¶ 10–11. Bassett suffers from congenital cataracts

1 and glaucoma, which affect “his daily life activities like seeing, working, reading and driving.”

Id., ¶ 16. The Department is aware of Plaintiff’s disability and granted him a reasonable

accommodation in 2014; it also approved him for a computer program called ZoomText in 2019.

Id., ¶¶ 45, 47 n.3.

The events that eventually led to this suit began on August 28, 2019, when Bassett

requested and was denied leave to take a month off from October 1 to November 1, 2019. Id., ¶¶

24–27. In a subsequent discussion regarding his leave request that took place on September 19,

Coleman told him that she could “only approve his leave if he changed it to a leave request

pursuant to the Family [and] Medical Leave Act (FMLA).” Id., ¶ 28. Then, on October 2,

Coleman again denied Plaintiff’s leave request as not submitted pursuant to the FMLA. Id., ¶

29.

Later, on October 11, Bassett and Coleman met to discuss his 2018/2019 Performance

Evaluation. At this time, Plaintiff was unable to respond to his evaluation because it was

delivered “in a format he could not read due to his disability.” Id., ¶ 33. He accordingly

requested his evaluation, as well as the materials Coleman relied on, in a legible format. Id., ¶

34. Five days later, Coleman provided him “the entire record” in such a format. Id., ¶ 38.

Unhappy about this delay and believing that his initial evaluation was inaccurate, Plaintiff

through his counsel requested additional time to review the materials he had been given and to

respond to his performance evaluation. Id., ¶ 39. After some disputes about when this review

period began, Torres provided a new deadline of October 22. Id. In addition, despite Plaintiff’s

response, Coleman did not revise the “Minimally Satisfactory” rating she had initially given him.

Id., ¶¶ 43-44.

2 What turned out to be the last nail in the coffin occurred on October 18, when Bassett

was supplied with ZoomText, which the Court assumes makes it easier to read and work on a

computer screen. He alleges that he informed his supervisors that the computer he was using at

the time could not support this program. Id., ¶ 45, 52. This, along with other issues Plaintiff had

with using Adobe and accessing a department database, made it difficult for him to meet

assigned deadlines. See ECF No. 19 (Pl. Opp. to MTD) at 5. Bassett alleges that the

Department nevertheless continued to give him deadlines that were “completely unattainable”

and assigned him to “more complex” work. Id. “To this day,” Plaintiff states, his

accommodations request “has not been met.” Second Am. Compl., ¶ 55.

Having failed to secure his desired relief, Bassett filed a formal Equal Employment

Opportunity complaint against the agency on December 28, 2019. See ECF No. 17 (Def. MTD),

Exh. 1 (Formal EEO Compl.) at 3. This complaint alleged discrimination and retaliation based

on the denial of his leave request, the denial of his reasonable-accommodation requests, the

format in which he was given his 2018/2019 performance evaluation, the time he was given to

respond to this evaluation, and the rating he received. Id. at 3-5. On April 29, 2020, the

Department issued a letter notifying Plaintiff that it was accepting some, but not all, of his claims

for investigation. See Def. MTD, Exh. 3 (April 29, 2020, Letter) at 2. Bassett objected to the

Department’s decision to reject some of his claims, and the agency responded by reformulating

the claims it would accept for investigation. See Def. MTD, Exhs. 4, 5 (May 14, 2020, Letter;

November 13, 2020, Letter). The Department accepted Plaintiff’s claims of discrimination,

retaliation, and hostile work environment based on the events described above. See November

13, 2020, Letter at 2-3. Ultimately, however, it denied relief for all claims in a Final Agency

Decision issued on May 16, 2022. See Def. MTD, Exh. 6 (Final Agency Decision) at 17.

3 Dissatisfied with this result, Plaintiff brought this action on August 14, 2022. His initial

Complaint contained two counts of discrimination and retaliation under the Rehabilitation Act

and one count of hostile work environment based on disability, for which he mistakenly invoked

Title VII. See ECF No. 1 (Compl.), ¶¶ 44–67. Shortly thereafter, he filed an Amended

Complaint, which the Department moved to dismiss. See ECF No. 4 (Am. Compl.); No. 12

(Initial Def. MTD). Plaintiff then obtained leave to amend his Complaint for the second time.

See ECF No. 15 (Minute Order dated April 28, 2023). In the Second Amended Complaint,

which is the operative pleading here, Bassett again brings two counts of discrimination and

retaliation under the Rehabilitation Act but now drops his Title VII cause of action. See Second

Am. Compl., ¶¶ 56–71. Defendant now moves to dismiss in part under Federal Rule of Civil

Procedure 12(b)(6).

II. Legal Standard

Rule 12(b)(6) provides for the dismissal of an action where a complaint fails to “state a

claim upon which relief can be granted.” Although “detailed factual allegations” are not

necessary to withstand a Rule 12(b)(6) motion, Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555

(2007), “a complaint must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to state a claim to

relief that is plausible on its face.” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009) (internal

quotations marks and citation omitted). In weighing a motion to dismiss, a court “may consider

only the facts alleged in the complaint, any documents either attached to or incorporated in the

complaint[,] and matters of which [the court] may take judicial notice.” EEOC v. St. Francis

Xavier Parochial School, 117 F.3d 621, 624 (D.C. Cir.

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