Green v. Dallas County Schools

537 S.W.3d 501
CourtTexas Supreme Court
DecidedMay 12, 2017
DocketNo. 16-0214
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 537 S.W.3d 501 (Green v. Dallas County Schools) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Texas Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Green v. Dallas County Schools, 537 S.W.3d 501 (Tex. 2017).

Opinion

PER CURIAM

In this disability-discrimination case, the trial court entered judgment on the jury’s verdict in favor of the employee. The court of appeals reversed, holding the employee offered no evidence he was terminated “because of’ his congestive heart failure. We conclude the court of appeals erred by treating the employee’s heart condition as his only disability. The evidence, viewed in light of the jury charge, supports a finding that the employee was terminated because of a different disability: urinary incontinence. We reverse the court of appeals’ judgment and remand to that court for further proceedings.

[503]*503Paul Green worked as a bus monitor for Dallas County Schools (DCS), transporting children with special needs. When first hired, Green told his supervisor he had congestive heart failure and was taking Lasix, a diuretic drug. He later began taking Coreg, a drug he believed had the same urinary side effects. A few years later, DCS assigned Green' to a new bus driven by Carlos Barcena.

On August 30, 2011, after the bus dropped off the only student, Green asked Barcena to stop at a gas station so Green could use the.bathroom. Barcena agreed but then turned into a residential area instead of towards the gas station. Green repeated his request, ultimately begging Barcena to stop, but Barcena asked him to wait until the next scheduled stop. Green could not wait and involuntarily urinated in his pants. Green again asked Barcena to stop. When Barcena complied, Green concealed himself behind the bus doors and finished urinating' into an empty water bottle. Green’s pants were wet, but he had not wet the seat or elsewhere on the bus. At. the next scheduled stop, Green helped a wheelchair-bound student board the bus, secured the wheelchair’s straps, and later released the straps when the bus reached its destination. Green denied that he ever touched the student.

Barcena reported the incident to their supervisor, who notified DCS’s area director, Dennis Johnson. Green and Barce-na provided written statements about the incident to Johnson. On September 16, Johnson terminated Green’s employment. Johnson explained in, a termination letter that he fired Green because Green “engaged in unprofessional conduct while on a DCS school bus,” admitted to “urinating on [himself] and in a water bottle while onboard the school bus,” and “failed to protect the health and safety of the students boarding at [the] next scheduled stop from exposure to bodily fluids.” Green unsuccessfully appealed his termination through DCS’s grievance process. Green then initiated this lawsuit, alleging DCS terminated his employment because he was disabled.

During a six-day trial, the jury heard testimony about the termination process, the reasons for DCS’s decision, congestive heart failure, the drug Green was taking, and urinary incontinence. Green testified that, before his assignment to Barcena’s bus, other drivers accommodated his urinary issues by taking him to a public restroom and’ informing DCS dispatch about the unscheduled stops. DCS never disciplined the other drivers for this conduct. One of those drivers, Reverend Clyde Strickland, testified that Green said he took medication that sometimes caused an urgent need to urinate.

Under the Texas Labor Code, an employer “commits an unlawful employment practice” if it discharges an individual “because of ... disability.” Tex, Lab. Code § 21.051(1). At trial, the parties agreed that, to prevail on his disability-discrimination claim, Green must prove (1) he has a disability, (2) he was qualified for the 'job, and (3) he suffered an adverse employment decision because of his disability. See Davis v. City of Grapevine, 188 S.W.3d 748, 757 (Tex. App.—Fort Worth 2006, pet. denied) (citing Turco v. Hoechst Celanese Corp., 101 F.3d 1090, 1092 (5th Cir. 1996)); see also Tex. Lab. Code § 21.001(3) (codifying the purposes of the Act, including execution of the policies embodied in federal employment discrimination legislation); City of Hous. v. Proler, 437 S.W.3d 529, 532 (Tex. 2014) (“In construing Texas law on [employment discrimination], we consider federal civil rights law as well as our own caselaw.”).

The parties also agreed—and the trial court instructed the jury—that Green sat[504]*504isfied the first two elements as a matter of law. Thus, the only issue for the jury was whether DCS terminated Green “because of’ his disability. On that issue, and without objection, the court asked the jury three questions: (1) whether “Green’s disability [was] a motivating factor in [DOS’s] decision to terminate [his] employment;” (2) if so, whether DCS proved that it “would have made the same decision to terminate [Green’s] employment even if it had not considered his disability or disabilities;” and (3) if not, whether Green suffered any damages. The jury answered “yes” to the first question, “no” to the second question, and awarded Green $41,292 in back pay and $125,000 in compensatory damages. The trial court rendered judgment for Green based on the jury’s verdict.

The court of appeals reversed and rendered a take-nothing judgment, concluding there was no evidence that DCS fired Green “because of’ his disability. The court reasoned that, even if the evidence established “that DCS terminated Green because he experienced incontinence while he was on the bus, there still must be some evidence that [Green’s] disability caused the incontinence.” 518 S.W.3d at 454-55, 458, 2016 WL 229434 (Tex. App.—Dallas 2016). In the court’s view, Green’s only “disability” was congestive heart failure. Id. at 451 n.1, 2016 WL 229434 (stating that “the disability at issue here is conges-five heart failure”). Based on that belief, the court held even if DCS fired Green because of urinary incontinence, Green could not establish he was terminated “because of’ his disability (that is, congestive heart failure) unless he provided evidence that his heart condition or the medication he was taking for it caused the incontinence for which DCS fired him. Id. at 455, 2016 WL 229434. Because Green provided no evidence of “the reason for [his] incontinence,” the court of appeals concluded Green failed to establish that “his disability (congestive heart failure) was a motivating factor in his termination.” Id. at 455, 2016 WL 229434.

Green says the court of appeals erred because Green’s urinary incontinence was “itself a disability,” as well as “a side effect of other disabilities and of Green’s medications.” According to Green, the court erred in holding that “the disability at issue here is congestive heart failure,” id. at 451 n.l, 2016 WL 229434, because Green submitted evidence that he “had several disabilities (admitted by DCS) including congestive heart failure and urinary incontinence.” Because the jury heard evidence that Green suffered from incontinence and that DCS terminated Green because of that disability, Green contends the court of appeals erred by requiring him to also establish that his heart condition caused his incontinence.1 In response, DCS argues [505]

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
537 S.W.3d 501, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/green-v-dallas-county-schools-tex-2017.