Reversing a jury verdict for the employer, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled recently that a company may be required under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to provide a reasonable accommodation to an employee with a disability, even where the employee concedes he is able to perform the job’s essential functions without an accommodation, albeit with considerable difficulty.
In Bell v. O’Reilly Auto Enterprises, Inc., No. 18-2164 (1st Cir. August 21, 2020), the First Circuit ruled it was reversible error for the trial court to instruct the jury that, to make out a failure-to-accommodate claim, a disabled employee must demonstrate he “needed” an accommodation to perform the essential functions of his job. According to the First Circuit, “[a]n employee who can, with some difficulty, perform the essential functions of his job without accommodation nevertheless remains eligible to request and receive a reasonable accommodation” so long as he is able to show that (1) he is a person with a disability, (2) he is qualified to perform the essential functions of his job with or without accommodation, and (3) the employer knew of the disability but declined to reasonably accommodate it upon request.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.