Employer-Employee-Disability and Sex Discrimination-Failure to Accommodate-ADA

Plaintiff appealed the grant of summary judgment to defendant, her former employer. Plaintiff filed suit alleging failure to accommodate and retaliation in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and sex discrimination in violation of Title VII. Plaintiff suffered a back injury in a fall at work and received an accommodation from defendant’s standing requirement, allowing her to sit down. However, after accommodating plaintiff for several months, defendant placed her on medical leave because she could not stand for an extended period. Defendant ultimately terminated plaintiff because she had no foreseeable date on which she would return to work without restrictions.

Where plaintiff’s job description contained express physical requirements that she could not meet due to her medical limitations, defendant did not discriminate against plaintiff when it terminated her where defendant’s offered accommodation was not reasonable to defendant if permanently granted.

Judgment is affirmed.

Kendall v. Zoltek Corporation (MLW No. 84785/Case No. 25-1411 – 13 pages) (U.S. Court of Appeals, 8th Circuit, Shepherd, J.) Appealed from U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Missouri, Ross, J.