when necessary. The defendant conditioned Hautala ’ s job offer on a physical examination to determine his fitness for the position. Hautala had a permanent leg impairment resulting from a motorcycle accident, and after the examination, the defendant rescinded the job offer. The defendant contended that while Hautala met the skill, experience, and education requirements for the RN position, it found that he lacked the necessary compassion for mentally ill patients such that it had to rescind the job offer. The defendant stated that Hautala made statements about how he enjoyed “crazy person takedowns” and “fighting off meth heads,” which it determined should disqualify him for the position and thus he was not a “qualified individual” under the ADA. Id. at *8. The EEOC did not dispute the comments Hautala made, but argued that the comments were discovered after the job offer, making them “after-acquired” evidence not related to the job offer being rescinded. Id. at *10. The court rejected this argument. It opined that after-acquired evidence can be used to show that an individual is not qualified under the ADA, which is distinct from using such evidence to retroactively justify discrimination. The EEOC also argued that allowing after-acquired evidence would cause undue prejudice since the defendant initially dismissed its after-acquired evidence affirmative defense. The court concluded that it was not being used as an affirmative defense, but rather to demonstrate that Hautala was not qualified from the outset. Accordingly, the court granted the defendant ’ s motion for summary judgment. Next, in EEOC v. Telecare Mental Health Services of Washington, Inc. , 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 146513 (W.D. Wash. Aug. 21, 2023), the court gave the EEOC a second chance to present evidence rebutting Telecare ’ s argument, and requested supplemental briefing on Telecare ’ s argument that Hautala was not a “qualified individual” for the position. Despite the second opportunity to rebut Telecare ’ s position, the EEOC offered no contrary evidence and argued only that the comments, “as after-acquired evidence, could not be considered as a post hoc justification” for Telecare ’ s failure to hire Hautala. Id. at *6. Accordingly, the court granted Telecare ’ s motion for summary judgment and held that the EEOC failed to allege facts sufficient to support its prima facie case of discrimination under the ADA. In particular, the court found that the claimant was not a qualified individual for the nursing position he applied for given Telecare ’ s undisputed evidence that Hautala had made the “troubling” and “inappropriate” comments, that compassion for patients suffering from mental illness was a necessary qualification for the position, and that the comments “conclusively demonstrated a lack of such compassion.” Id. The EEOC subsequently filed a motion for reconsideration of the summary judgment ruling in Telecare ’ s favor. In doing so, the EEOC for the first time provided evidence that Telecare was aware of Hautala ’ s views towards the mentally ill, and argued that a material issue of fact required reinstating Hautala ’ s ADA claims. The EEOC contended that it was entitled to reconsideration because subjective criteria ( i.e. , whether the claimant possessed the requisite compassion for the job) could not be considered as part of its prima facie case. In rejecting this argument, the court found the McDonnel Douglas burden-shifting framework inapplicable because Telecare admitted it did not hire Hautala based upon his disability, nor was the subjective criteria at issue “hotly contested” like the criteria in the EEOC ’ s cited precedent. However, the court found the EEOC ’ s second argument for reconsideration more convincing. The EEOC argued that there was a disputed issue of fact as to whether Telecare knew of the claimant ’ s view on mentally ill patients during the application process, thereby
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© Duane Morris LLP 2024
The EEOC Litigation Review – 2024
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