In Santa Monica, California, a deaf woman sued Burger King, claiming that its drive-through windows illegally discriminated against deaf people. Burger King settled the lawsuit by agreeing to install visual electronic ordering devices at ten restaurants.
A Madison, Wisconsin telephone operator sued her employer for refusing to make reasonable accommodations for her narcolepsy. The woman was routinely late for work, and had sought permission to continue arriving late owing to her "disability."
In Tampa, Florida, Joe Hindman was fired from GTE Data Services after he was found to have robbed purses in the office of thousands of dollars and was caught bringing a loaded gun into the office. Hindman sued the company, claiming he was disabled because of a chemical imbalance caused by the prescription drug Prozac. Federal Judge Elizabeth Kovachevich ruled that the company violated the man's civil rights, saying, "When poor judgement is a symptom of a mental or psychological disorder, it is defined as an impairment that would qualify as a disability under the ADA." To allow Hindman to continue working at the company, Kovachevich ruled, the company should have tried to find some "reasonable accommodation." Kovachevich's decision was later overruled.
A Suffolk University professor sued the law school, claiming that she had been denied tenure because she suffered from an illness that results in lethargy and decreased productivity.
A clerk-typist in the Howard County, Maryland government was fired after repeatedly directing rude outbursts and denunciations at her supervisors. She claimed in her suit that the firing violated her civil rights. Because she is a manic-depressive, she claimed that her employer was required to strip her job of all its inherent stress.
A motorist who was ticketed by a Topeka, Kansas policeman for not
wearing a seatbelt claimed that he could not wear one because of
claustrophobia, and sued the city for violating the ADA. A judge later
dismissed the suit.
A New Orleans television broadcaster, Lynn Gansar, received an endorsement from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to sue her employer for refusing to give her extensive time off to try to get pregnant. This put the station—"because of her pregnancy-related condition," the agency wrote—in violation of the ADA. A jury later rejected her demands for back pay and severance pay.
A federal judge rejected the suit of a postal worker who had destroyed property and endangered his supervisor, and then claimed to be suffering from "explosive personality disorder."
Florida district appeals judge Eugene Garrett was nabbed shoplifting a VCR remote control. When the Florida Supreme Court ordered Garrett removed from the bench, Garrett appealed the ruling, citing the ADA. Garrett claimed he was disabled because he was "depressed" that his daughter failed to get into law school and his son was also getting poor grades.
A former FBI communications officer was fired after his supervisors concluded that his paranoia and inability to perceive reality interfered with his ability to handle confidential documents. A federal judge noted that his employee "at one point felt he had died and gone to hell. He feared that a nuclear holocaust was imminent, and he called the Strategic Air Command in Omaha to issue a warning." The employee sued, claiming discrimination against his "bipolar mood disorder."
The American Psychiatric Association defined "disorder of written expression" (i.e., bad writing) and excessive use of caffeine as potential illnesses. The Employee Relations Law Journal noted that the following personality disorders may be protected under the ADA: Antisocial Personality Disorder (a pattern of disregard for, and violation of the rights of, others); Histrionic Personality Disorder (a pattern of excessive emotionality and attention seeking); and Narcissistic Personality Disorder (a pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and lack of empathy).
[Ed.: Willingness to litigate may well be the next 'major life activity' to be covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act.]
