Anthony v. TRAX International Corp., No. 18-15662 (9th Cir. 2020)
Annotate this Case
The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court's grant of summary judgment to TRAX in a disability discrimination action brought by plaintiff under Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). After TRAX terminated plaintiff from her position as a Technical Writer allegedly due to an inability or unwillingness to accommodate her disability, TRAX discovered during the course of litigation that plaintiff lacked the requisite bachelor's degree for her position.
The panel held that, although McKennon v. Nashville Banner Publishing Co., 513 U.S. 352 (1995), held that after-acquired evidence cannot establish a superseding, non-discriminatory justification for an employer's challenged actions, after-acquired evidence remains available for other purposes, including to show that an individual is not qualified under the ADA. Because plaintiff did not satisfy one of the prerequisites for her position, she is not "otherwise qualified," and TRAX was not obligated to engage in the interactive process.
Court Description: Employment Discrimination. The panel affirmed the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the employer in a disability discrimination action under Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act. After plaintiff filed suit, alleging that her employer terminated her from her position as a technical writer because of her disability, the employer learned that, contrary to her representation on her employment application, plaintiff lacked the bachelor’s degree required of all technical writers under the employer’s government contract. Under the two-step qualified individual test promulgated by the EEOC and embedded in the court’s precedent, an individual who fails to satisfy the job prerequisites cannot be considered “qualified” under the ADA unless she shows that the prerequisite is itself discriminatory in effect. Disagreeing with the Seventh Circuit and agreeing with other circuits, the panel held that a limitation on the use of after-acquired evidence, applicable under McKennon v. Nashville Banner Publishing Co., 513 U.S. 352 (1995), to an employer attempting to excuse its discriminatory conduct under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, does not extend to evidence used to show that an ADA plaintiff is not a qualified individual, as required to establish a prima facie case of disability discrimination. Further, the employer had ANTHONY V. TRAX INT’L 3 no obligation to engage in the interactive process to identify and implement reasonable accommodations.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.