Bender v. Norfolk Southern Corp.

31 F. Supp. 3d 659, 30 Am. Disabilities Cas. (BNA) 185, 2014 WL 3339605, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 92364
District Court, M.D. Pennsylvania·Decided July 8, 2014·No. No. 1:12-CV-01198·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

MEMORANDUM

SYLVIA H. RAMBO, District Judge.

In this civil action, Plaintiff asserted claims for discrimination and failure to accommodate, in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. § 12101 (“ADA”), against Defendant for medically disqualifying him from the position of railroad conductor due to his “uncontrolled” Type I insulin-dependent diabetes. Following a three-day jury trial, the jury rendered a verdict in Defendant’s favor. Presently before the court is Plaintiffs post-trial motion for judgment as a matter of law pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 50, or, in the alternative, a new trial, pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 59(b). For the reasons stated below, the court will deny Plaintiffs motion in its entirety.

I. Background

As the parties have already been through a trial on this matter, and the factual background of this case was set forth at length in the court’s memorandum denying Defendant’s motion for summary judgment (see Bender v. Norfolk Southern Corp., and Norfolk Southern Railway Co., 1:12-cv-01198, 2014 WL 131638, 994 F.Supp.2d 593 (M.D.Pa. Jan. 14, 2014)), it is unnecessary to recount a lengthy factual and procedural history at this juncture.

A. Factual Background

Briefly stated, Defendant, Norfolk Southern Corporation and Norfolk Southern Railway Company (collectively “Defendant”), is a Class I railroad company engaged in freight transportation. In 2010, Defendant posted a job opening for the position of conductor trainee, a “safety sensitive” position, based out of its Harrisburg Consolidated Terminal located within the Middle District of Pennsylvania. Pursuant to the job posting, Plaintiff, a Type I insulin-dependent diabetic, applied for the conductor position and subsequently received a conditional job offer, contingent upon his passing Defendant’s post-offer pre-employment medical evaluation and criminal background check. The results of Plaintiffs medical examination revealed the presence of glucose, blood, and protein in his urine. Upon receiving these results, Defendant’s medical department advised Plaintiff that they needed additional information to assess the impact of Plaintiffs medical condition on his ability to perform the essential duties of a conductor. Specifically, the medical department requested a written statement from Plaintiffs treat[663]*663ing physician indicating the current status of his diabetes and whether the physician recommended any work restrictions and/or necessary accommodations, and provided a copy of the job description for his physician to review. In addition, the medical department asked Plaintiff to provide a daily monitoring log of his glucose levels.

Plaintiffs treating physician, Dr. Kelly Caruso, advised the medical department that Plaintiffs blood sugars were well controlled and that his condition was stable on an insulin pump, and approved Plaintiff for the position “provided he is able to eat regularly scheduled meals and has access to' glucose tablets to take as needed for infrequent hypoglycemic episodes.” However, on November 18, 2010 — two days after sending her letter to Defendant’s medical department — Dr. Caruso entered a notation in Plaintiffs medical record in which she described Plaintiffs blood sugars as “not well controlled with [HgAlC] at 9.3.”

The medical department subsequently sought clarification of the frequency of Plaintiffs hypoglycemic episodes and Dr. Caruso’s use of the phrase, “regular meals.” Dr. Caruso responded that Plaintiff experienced hypoglycemic episodes approximately one to two times per month at night and would “need to eat breakfast, lunch[,] and dinner daily as well as have access to glucose supplementation as needed if he experiences hypoglycemia.” She added that Plaintiffs meals would “need to occur [at] regularly scheduled times [each day].”

Upon review of Plaintiffs medical file, Dr. C. Ray Prible, Director of Medical Services for Defendant, determined that Plaintiff did not have good control or stability of his diabetes and that Defendant could not accommodate Dr. Caruso’s mandate that Plaintiff be able to eat three regularly scheduled meals each day. Mr. Prible therefore medically disqualified Plaintiff from the position.

B. Procedural Background

Plaintiff subsequently filed a complaint on June 22, 2012 (Doc. 1) and an amended complaint on October 31, 2012 (Doc. 13), alleging that Defendant discriminated against him on the basis of his Type I diabetes by rescinding his contingent offer of employment based upon review of his pre-placement physical examination, and further alleging that Defendant refused to grant Plaintiff reasonable accommodation for his disability. Following discovery, Defendant filed a motion for summary judgment (Doe. 24) and brief in support (Doc. 26), asserting that Plaintiffs claims were precluded by Defendant’s affirmative defenses of business necessity and direct threat, and that Plaintiffs proposed accommodation of eating three regularly scheduled meals each day was unreasonable and would place an undue hardship on Defendant and its employees. Based on the evidence of record, the court concluded that material issues of facts existed which should be presented to a jury.

A jury trial commenced on February 18, 2014. At the close of the evidence, both parties made motions for judgment as a matter of law pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 50(a), which the court denied. The jury returned a verdict in favor of Defendant, finding that, although Plaintiff was otherwise qualified for the conductor position, with or without reasonable accommodation, (1) Defendant had not violated the ADA by failing to reasonably accommodate Plaintiffs disability; (2) Defendant’s medical guideline constituted a business necessity; and (3) Plaintiff would have posed a direct threat of harm to himself and others. (Doc. 70.)

On March 21, 2014, Plaintiff timely filed the instant post-trial motion for judgment [664]*664as a matter of law, or, in the alternative, for a new trial. (Doe. 76.) Plaintiff filed his brief in support on April 11, 2014 (Doc. 83), and Defendant filed its response on May 6, 20141 (Doc. 87). Thus, the motion is ripe for consideration.

II. Legal Standards

A. Motion for Judgment as a Matter of Law

Judgment as a matter of law should be used sparingly and may be granted only if, “as a matter of law, the record is critically deficient in that minimum quantity of evidence from which a jury might reasonably afford relief.” Whelan v. Teledyne Metalworking Prods., 226 Fed.Appx. 141, 145 (3d Cir.2007) (quoting Trabal v. Wells Fargo Armored Serv. Corp., 269 F.3d 243, 249 (3d Cir.2001)). In deciding whether to grant a Rule 50(b) motion:

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Bender v. Norfolk Southern Corp., 31 F. Supp. 3d 659, 30 Am. Disabilities Cas. (BNA) 185, 2014 WL 3339605, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 92364 (M.D. Pa. 2014).

31 F. Supp. 3d 659 (Bender v. Norfolk Southern Corp.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related