Horn v. Knight Facilities Management-GM, Inc.

556 F. App'x 452
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedFebruary 25, 2014
Docket12-2688
StatusUnpublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 556 F. App'x 452 (Horn v. Knight Facilities Management-GM, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Horn v. Knight Facilities Management-GM, Inc., 556 F. App'x 452 (6th Cir. 2014).

Opinion

JULIA SMITH GIBBONS, Circuit Judge.

Cynthia Horn appeals from the district court’s dismissal of her discrimination claim. Horn worked for Knight Facilities Management-GM, Inc., as a janitor for several years, during which she developed a sensitivity to cleaning products. Horn argues that Knight Facilities violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by failing to provide reasonable accommodations. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of Knight Facilities on all claims. We agree that no issue of material fact exists and therefore affirm the judgment.

I.

Horn began working for Knight Facilities as a janitor in July 2008. Knight Facilities requires its janitors to clean restrooms, floors, counters, and windows, among other tasks. Janitors also must mix water with detergents or acids to prepare cleaning solutions.

During the course of her employment, Horn worked several different cleaning routes. In December 2009, Horn was assigned to a cleaning route in the Cadillac Building. This route included eight restrooms, the main lobby, main cafeteria, a smaller auxiliary cafeteria, several conference rooms, cubicles, hallways, and stairs. Horn’s duties on this route included mopping floors and stairs; cleaning cafeteria tables, refrigerators, and microwaves; cleaning sinks and countertops; cleaning conference tables; cleaning drinking fountains; spraying trash receptacles after emptying them; and cleaning restrooms. Horn used chemicals such as Lemon-Scented Neutral Quat and Chemico 2800. The use of these chemicals was not limited to cleaning restrooms.

Sometime in 2010, Horn developed a sensitivity to the cleaning chemicals. On March 22, 2010, Horn visited an associate at the office of her family physician, Dr. Lisa Langenburg, and complained of burning lungs and throat. She worked part of the next day, but her symptoms persisted. Horn made an appointment with Dr. Lan-genburg, who diagnosed her with pneumo-nitis and mild hypoxia. Dr. Langenburg recommended that Horn miss work for a week and wear a mask when cleaning bathrooms.

When Horn returned to work, she gave Knight Facilities a letter from Dr. Langen-burg that instructed Knight Facilities to restrict Horn’s bathroom chemical exposure to a maximum of two hours per eight-hour day and make an effort to ventilate the area. Knight Facilities complied and assigned four of Horn’s bathrooms to another janitor. Still, Horn’s symptoms returned within two hours of working. Horn’s supervisor drove her to a medical center that day for treatment.

Dr. Langenburg released Horn to work on July 14, 2010, but noted the following restriction: “no exposure to cleaning solutions.” Horn testified that this restriction was stricter than the first and that it was not limited to a location, but barred her use of cleaning chemicals “period.” Horn gave Dr. Langenburg’s letter to Knight Facilities’s human resources department. Concerned about the severity of the restriction, Kristya Smith, Knight Facilities’s human resources manager, contacted Dr. Langenburg and explained that it had no work available for Horn within the restriction. Therefore, Smith asked Dr. Langen- *454 burg to “review the cleaning solution fact sheet detailing the exposure limits of each chemical she is being exposed to and the job description detailing what is required of her and based on this information provide updated restrictions.” After reviewing the letter, Dr. Langenburg did not change Horn’s restrictions and continued to recommend that Horn “be away from [the cleaning solutions] altogether.” To this day, Horn is still on a “no exposure to cleaning solutions” restriction.

After talking to Dr. Langenburg, Smith discussed Horn’s work restrictions with Virginia Kuenker, Knight Facilities’s Vice President of Human Resources. They concluded that “there was no work available to meet the criteria that was set forth by Dr. Langenburg.” Kuenker explained that Horn would be exposed to cleaning solutions in any of the buildings cleaned by Knight Facilities, regardless of the task, because the solutions were airborne. After this meeting, Smith called Horn and told her that there was no work available within the restrictions.

Horn wrote several letters and emails asking Knight Facilities to place her in a different position and suggesting tasks she could do without exposure to chemicals. Horn then talked to the president of her local union, who spoke to Knight Facilities on Horn’s behalf. Knight Facilities participated in the discussions but ultimately determined that there were no open positions for Horn because of her seniority level. Knight Facilities also refused • to allow Horn to work her current route using a respirator, concluding that the use of a respirator did not meet Horn’s restriction and, even if it did, it would cause an undue hardship because Knight Facilities would have to buy respirators for all of the other janitors. Therefore, Knight Facilities fired Horn.

On August 31, 2011, Horn sued Knight Facilities, alleging a reasonable-accommodation claim under the ADA. Knight Facilities moved for summary judgment, arguing that Horn was not disabled under the ADA and that she was not a qualified individual because she could not perform the essential functions of her job even with reasonable accommodation. The district court agreed that Horn was not a qualified individual with or without a reasonable accommodation and granted Knight Facilities’s motion. Horn appeals.

II.

We review a district court’s grant of summary judgment de novo. Allstate Ins. Co. v. Thrifty Rent-A-Car Sys., Inc., 249 F.3d 450, 453 (6th Cir.2001). Summary judgment is appropriate “if the movant shows that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Fed.R.CivP. 56(a). The moving party bears the burden of showing that there is an absence of evidence to support the non-moving party’s case. Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 325, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). In deciding motions for summary judgment, we draw all reasonable inferences in favor of the nonmov-ant. Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 587, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986). “The ultimate inquiry is ‘whether the evidence presents a sufficient disagreement to require submission to a jury or whether it is so one-sided that one party must prevail as a matter of law.’ ” Phillips v. Roane Cnty., 534 F.3d 531, 538 (6th Cir.2008) (quoting Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 251-52, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986)).

III.

We evaluate reasonable-accommodation claims using the direct evidence test. *455 Kleiber v. Honda of Am. Mfg., Inc.,

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