Lane v. Bell County Board of Education

72 F. App'x 389
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedAugust 12, 2003
DocketNo. 02-5345
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 72 F. App'x 389 (Lane v. Bell County Board of Education) 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
Lane v. Bell County Board of Education, 72 F. App'x 389 (6th Cir. 2003).

Opinion

OPINION

DOWD, Senior District Judge.

This action was commenced by plaintiff-appellant Joyce Lane on June 26, 1998. [391]*391The complaint asserted three claims: (1) discrimination in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U.S.C. § 12101, et seq.; (2) gender discrimination in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e, et seq.; and (3) outrageous conduct based on Kentucky common law. The complaint named three defendants: Board of Education of Bell County, Kentucky; Superintendent Yvonne Slusher Gillium; and Principal Douglas Fitts (collectively “defendants”).

Our review involves two orders of the district court, one issued on January 25, 1999, dismissing Lane’s state law claim of outrageous conduct.1 and the other issued on February 11, 2002, granting summary judgment to the defendants on Lane’s ADA claim.2 This Court has jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291.

I.

The parties both adopted the factual summary set forth in the February 11, 2002 opinion. We do essentially the same and include here the salient facts necessary for our analysis.

Lane has worked as a teacher in Bell County, Kentucky since 1971. In the late 1980s, she took medical leave on two occasions due to “pressure and harassment” by her principal.3 Following her second leave, the superintendent at the time (Ira Slusher) would not allow her to return to work. In 1990, she filed a federal lawsuit4 against the Board and Slusher, alleging, under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, that Slusher’s refusal to assign her a teaching position constituted retaliation “because of her speech, expressions, associations and affiliations[ ]” and that it caused her to suffer “mental anguish and humiliation[ ]” for which she sought damages in the amount of $100,000, in addition to future lost wages. R. 41, Exh. 8. 1T1T 9-11. She asserted that this was a denial of a property right (her tenured teaching position) without due process. Id., 1113. In addition to injunctive relief, Lane sought from Slusher alone compensatory damages of $100,000 and punitive damages of $200,000.

In 1992, while the above-described lawsuit was still pending, Lane began receiving treatment for a mental disorder which her psychiatrist. Jean K. Noxon, M.D., eventually diagnosed as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) caused by the stressful working conditions Lane experienced in the late 1980s. Her disorder was marked by disturbed sleep, anorexia, dysphoric mood, fearfulness, headaches, gastrointestinal complaints, severe anxiety with recurrent panic attacks, and difficulty concentrating.

[392]*392On May 24, 1994, Lane alone (without her co-plaintiff) entered into a settlement agreement with the defendants. See R. 41, Exh. 4. The defendants, without admitting any fault, agreed to pay Lane the total sum of $138,991.00, “which representad] payment of damages on account of personal injuries.” Id., at 2. The settlement agreement further provided:

... The above sum to be paid to plaintiff is for a full and final settlement of all monetary claims in said litigation, whatever their nature, and Plaintiff does hereby fully and forever release, acquit, and discharge Defendants and their agents, employees, insurers, and representatives of and from any and all monetary claims, demands, judgments, damages, expenses, attorneys’ fees and causes of action of whatever kind and nature, asserted or unasserted on account of any and all known and unknown injuries, losses, and damages sustained or received arising out of or in connection with the facts giving rise to the claims, the Complaint, and any amendments thereto or thereof, filed in said litigation.

Id.

Lane returned to teaching in Bell County in 1995. In 1996, she was assigned to teach second and third grades at the Yellow Creek Elementary School where she was placed in a classroom that ail parties agree was too small for the size of her class. The classroom also had poor ventilation, no windows, and no air conditioning. It was located next to the school’s family resource center. As a result, the classroom was so noisy that Lane often had to repeat herself to be heard by her students.

These working conditions interfered with Lane’s ability to teach and caused her to become sad. to suffer panic attacks, flashbacks, nightmares, anxiety, diarrhea, and feelings of hopelessness, and to have difficulty concentrating and remembering. She also developed an intense phobia of her classroom and suffered from frequent acute episodes of palpitations, sweating, trembling, smothering, chest pains, nausea, and dizziness.

About two or three weeks after starting at Yellow Creek, Lane informed the principal, Mr. Fitts, that her room was too hot and noisy. She told Fitts she suffered from PTSD and asked if she could be a floating teacher (without a regularly scheduled classroom) or if she could be moved into the family resource center (a slightly larger room that had direct access to windows). She also asked for some help with the heat and the noise in her current classroom. Fitts apparently refused her requests, even though she continued to complain about her working conditions throughout the year. Eventually, Lane informed the school superintendent that she wanted to take a leave of absence pursuant to the Family and Medical Leave Act because the working conditions at her job had exacerbated her PTSD.

On March 27, 1997, the day before Lane was scheduled to take FMLA leave, Fitts informed her that he was dispersing her students to other teachers apparently because of a complaint he received from the mother of one of Lane’s students. Fitts informed Lane that she would now be a math and reading teacher in that same room for about twelve students. Lane never assumed that new assignment, however, because her FMLA leave began the next day.5 Lane has not worked as a [393]*393teacher since March 28,1997, although she has stated a willingness to do so if the Defendants would accommodate her PTSD.

II.

A.

The district court issued two orders, the first dismissing Lane’s state law claim of outrageous conduct and the second granting summary judgment in favor of the defendants on Lane’s ADA claim.

Our review of both orders of the district court is de novo. Weiner v. Klais and Co., Inc., 108 F.3d 86, 88 (6th Cir.1997) (review of order dismissing claims pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6)); Salve Regina College v. Russell, 499 U.S. 225, 231, 111 S.Ct. 1217, 113 L.Ed.2d 190 (1991) (review of district court’s determination of state law); Crawford v. Roane, 53 F.3d 750

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72 F. App'x 389, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lane-v-bell-county-board-of-education-ca6-2003.