Puckett v. Board of Trustees of the First Baptist Church of Gainesville, Inc.

17 F. Supp. 3d 1339, 29 Am. Disabilities Cas. (BNA) 1427, 2014 WL 1572748, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 53142
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Georgia
DecidedApril 17, 2014
DocketCivil Action No. 2:13-CV-00131-RWS
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 17 F. Supp. 3d 1339 (Puckett v. Board of Trustees of the First Baptist Church of Gainesville, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Puckett v. Board of Trustees of the First Baptist Church of Gainesville, Inc., 17 F. Supp. 3d 1339, 29 Am. Disabilities Cas. (BNA) 1427, 2014 WL 1572748, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 53142 (N.D. Ga. 2014).

Opinion

ORDER

RICHARD W. STORY, District Judge.

This case comes before the Court on Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss [10]. After reviewing the record, the Court enters the following Order.

Background1

This disability discrimination action arises out of Plaintiff David Puckett’s (“Mr. Puckett” or “Plaintiff’) termination [1341]*1341from his job as a maintenance worker at the First Baptist Church of Gainesville. Mr. Puckett worked at the church for over fifteen years, from July 1997 until September 2012, and was responsible for cleaning and maintaining the church sanctuary and other areas. He performed his duties well and received a $1,000 bonus in July 2012. Church members occasionally commended him for his good work.

Mr. Puckett suffers from schizophrenia, a condition characterized by severe anxiety, depression, fear, nightmares, seizures, delusions, hallucinations, difficulty interacting with people, trouble thinking, and insomnia. He controls his symptoms by taking medication and working, but his ability to work is limited to eight hours per day for forty hours per week. Dr. Kent Murphy, Associate Pastor for Administration, knew of Plaintiffs condition and was aware of how it affected him because Dr. Murphy has a brother with schizophrenia.

In 2012, near the end of Mr. Puckett’s employment, Defendants increased his duties to include cleaning the church’s classrooms despite knowing his mental limitations. Plaintiff was unable to perform the extra duties to the required standards, which he alleges even people without a mental illness would have been incapable of meeting. He alleges that Defendants assigned him this work because they knew he would fail and then used his failure as pretext to discharge him due to his disability. In fact, at least three people now perform the job duties Plaintiff had been assigned to perform alone.

Mr. Puckett further charges that Dr. Murphy admitted to Plaintiff Joyce Puckett, Mr. Puckett’s wife, that he was discharged because of his mental inability to take on extra work. Dr. Murphy also told Ms. Puckett,

Yes I know what schizo is, my brother has it.... We take care of him, we pay his bills with his [Supplemental Security Income] check and we take him to the doctors, then let me give you an example, he has to be at the doctor’s office at 2:00 o’clock, he said we will get right up to the door and he knows he has only two minutes to get inside and he will have to stop and smoke a damn cigarette! And it gets on my nerves so bad, so yes I know all about schizo and mental illness.

(Compl., Dkt. [1] ¶ 16.)

Additionally, Mr. Puckett says that in mid-2011 he was verbally abused by his supervisor when he refused to sign a disciplinary notice regarding offenses and failures he did not commit. The supervisor mentioned Mr. Puckett’s mental illness and suggested that he was off his medications. Around October 8, 2011, Mr. Puckett had a mental breakdown and was hospitalized.

When Mr. Puckett was terminated, the church offered to help Plaintiffs pay their bills. After Plaintiffs’ counsel informed Defendants that they may have violated Mr. Puckett’s rights, Defendants stopped payment on a severance check they had issued him. Plaintiffs state that they have suffered emotional distress and that Defendants’ actions have harmed their physical and mental health. The Pucketts allege the following claims against the Board of Trustees of the First Baptist Church of Gainesville, Inc. and the First Baptist Church of Gainesville: (1) discriminatory discharge in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), 42 U.S.C. § 12101 et seq., and the Georgia Equal Employment for Persons with Disabilities Code (“GEEPDC”), O.C.G.A. § 34-6A-4(a); (2) failure to make a reasonable accommodation; (3) retaliation in violation of the GEEPDC; and (4) intentional infliction of emotional distress. Defendants move for dismissal of all claims.

[1342]*1342Discussion

I. Motion to Dismiss Legal Standard

When considering a Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss, a federal court is to accept as true “all facts set forth in the plaintiffs complaint.” Grossman v. Nationsbank, N.A., 225 F.3d 1228, 1231 (11th Cir.2000) (citation omitted). Further, the court must draw all reasonable inferences in the light most favorable to the plaintiff. Bryant v. Avado Brands, Inc., 187 F.3d 1271, 1273 n. 1 (11th Cir.1999); see also Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555-56, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007) (internal citations omitted). However, “[a] pleading that offers ‘labels and conclusions’ or ‘a formulaic recitation of the elements of a cause of action will not do.’ ” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009) (quoting Twombly, 550 U.S. at 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955). “Nor does a complaint suffice if it tenders ‘naked assertion[s]’ devoid of ‘further factual enhancement.’ ” Id.

The United States Supreme Court has dispensed with the rule that a complaint may only be dismissed under Rule 12(b)(6) when “ ‘it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of his claim which would entitle him to relief.’ ” Twombly, 550 U.S. at 561, 127 S.Ct. 1955 (quoting Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 45-46, 78 S.Ct. 99, 2 L.Ed.2d 80 (1957)). The Supreme Court has replaced that rule with the “plausibility standard,” which requires that factual allegations “raise the right to relief above the speculative level.” Id. at 556, 127 S.Ct. 1955. The plausibility standard “does not[, however,] impose a probability requirement at the pleading stage; it simply calls for enough facts to raise a reasonable expectation that discovery will reveal evidence [supporting the claim].” Id.

II. ADA Claim

Mr. Puckett alleges both that he was discharged because he suffers from a mental disability and that Defendants failed to reasonably accommodate his disability. The ADA prohibits an employer from discriminating against “a qualified individual with a disability because of the disability of such individual in regard to job application procedures, the hiring, advancement, or discharge of employees, employee compensation, job training, and other terms, conditions, and privileges of employment.” 42 U.S.C. § 12112(a).

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

Related

Morrison v. Brennan
M.D. Florida, 2019
Scott v. Shoe Show, Inc.
38 F. Supp. 3d 1343 (N.D. Georgia, 2014)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
17 F. Supp. 3d 1339, 29 Am. Disabilities Cas. (BNA) 1427, 2014 WL 1572748, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 53142, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/puckett-v-board-of-trustees-of-the-first-baptist-church-of-gainesville-gand-2014.