Alamillo v. BNSF Railway Co., No. 15-56091 (9th Cir. 2017)
Annotate this CasePlaintiff filed suit against BNSF, alleging that the company terminated him in violation of the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), Cal. Gov. Code 12940 et seq. The Ninth Circuit applied the McDonnell Douglas test and affirmed the district court's grant of summary judgment to BNSF, holding that plaintiff failed to establish a prima facie case of discrimination based on his obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) where no evidence established that plaintiff's OSA was a substantial motivating reason for BNSF's decision to terminate him. Even if plaintiff had made a prima facie case of discrimination, plaintiff failed to offer evidence that BNSF's stated reason -- recurrent absenteeism -- was either false or pretextual. Therefore, BNSF did not engage in unlawful discrimination by declining to alter plaintiff's disciplinary outcome based on his OSA diagnosis. Finally, the panel rejected plaintiff's claim that BNSF failed to provide a reasonable accommodation and interactive process claims.
Court Description: California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act The panel affirmed the district court’s summary judgment in favor of BNSF Railway Company in a former employee’s action alleging that BNSF terminated him from his job as a locomotive engineer in violation of the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (“FEHA”). The panel held that the appellant failed to establish that BNSF discriminated against him base on his disability – obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) – under FEHA. The panel applied the three-step burden-shifting test in McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792 (1973), and held that appellant’s claim failed at the first step – establishing a prima facie case of discrimination – because the record contained no evidence that appellant’s OSA was a substantial motivating reason for BNSF’s decision to terminate him. The panel also held that even if appellant had made a prima facie case of discrimination, his claim would fail at the third step because appellant had not offered evidence that BNSF’s stated reason – appellant’s history of attendance violations – was either false or pretextual. The panel concluded that BNSF did not engage in unlawful discrimination by declining to alter appellant’s disciplinary outcome, termination, based on his OSA diagnosis. The panel held that BNSF did not violate its reasonable accommodation duty under FEHA. The panel rejected
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