September 16, 2021 – Los Angeles, California. Carlsbad attorneys Golnar Fozi, Jeremy Dwork, and Gabriel Kontarovsky of Meyers Fozi & Dwork, LLP obtained a unanimous defense verdict in favor of Montebello Unified School District on September 16, 2021. The lawsuit arose from allegations by a former elementary school teacher diagnosed with multiple sclerosis during her employment with the District. Plaintiff’s lawsuit claimed that the District failed to provide her with reasonable accommodation and failed to engage with her in the interactive process throughout her employment. Plaintiff also claimed the District discriminated and retaliated against her as well as harassed her on the basis of her disability and for complaining of the District’s failure to accommodate her work restrictions. Lastly, Plaintiff claimed that the District failed to prevent disability discrimination, retaliation, and harassment against its employees.
At trial, evidence was presented that the District had accommodated Plaintiff’s disability and work restrictions due to her multiple sclerosis for the better part of ten years. The District worked tirelessly with Plaintiff, its own employees, and outside compliance consultants to ensure that Plaintiff was being reasonably accommodated for her ongoing and increasing work restrictions.
Evidence showed that Plaintiff was provided numerous accommodations since her diagnosis in 2009, until she was placed on medical leave in August 2018. This determination followed an interactive process meeting where Plaintiff expressed that the District’s previous accommodations were unsuccessful due to the variability of her multiple sclerosis symptoms. At that point, the evidence showed that Plaintiff’s accommodation requests were affecting the quantity and quality of instruction to the District’ students. Nevertheless, even after Plaintiff was placed on medical leave, the District continued to engage in the interactive process with her to determine if there was a way to reasonably accommodate her extensive work restrictions. In May 2019, nine months after she was placed on medical leave, Plaintiff’s treating neurologist determined that she was unable to work due to the progression of her multiple sclerosis, and a disability retirement followed.
Following six days of trial, at the close of evidence, the District moved for non-suit on all claims, leading to the dismissal of five out of six causes of action. Specifically, the Court found that Plaintiff could not prevail on claims that the District discriminated against her, retaliated against her, harassed her, failed to engage in the interactive process, or failed to prevent discrimination/retaliation/harassment. The sole remaining cause of action for jury deliberation was whether the District failed to reasonably accommodate the Plaintiff’s work restrictions.
The jury only required less than two hours of deliberation to reach a unanimous verdict. The jury found that at the time Plaintiff was placed on medical leave, she could not perform the essential functions of her position with reasonable accommodation. The Court will now enter judgment against plaintiff on the all matters that were taken to trial.
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