10th Circuit Reinstates ADA "Association" Claim

The Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits discrimination against an employee based on the employee's association with a disabled individual, and the classic example is a parent who claims he or she was fired because of a child's illness or disability. 

Such claims have particular relevance in an age of rising health care costs.  For example, in Trujillo v. Pacificorp, in which the Tenth Circuit issued a decision yesterday, a husband and wife claimed they were both fired from the same employer because their child's terminal illness was driving up the employer's health insurance costs.  The district court granted the employer's summary judgment motion on the ground that the couple failed to state a prima facie case, but the Tenth Circuit reversed.

In reversing, the Tenth Circuit emphasized the temporal proximity (three weeks for the father and six weeks for the mother) between the parents' termination and the health insurance claims resulting from their son's illness.  The court held:  "[G]iven the difficulty in establishing an expense case   . . . direct evidence of discrimination from [health care] costs will be rare.  Where as here, the temporal proximity is close, it is a circumstance that should be given considerable weight."

The court's holding appears to make it substantially easier for employees to survive summary judgment in ADA association claims, and employers should take heed.  I would not relish the prospect of trying a case like this to a jury -- in Trujillo, for example, the plaintiffs' son passed away soon after they were fired.  I'd be willing to bet Pacificorp now makes a serious run at negotiating a settlement.