What Not to Do in ADA Cases

Land Air Express of New England, Inc., an air freight and delivery company with terminals in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts, recently settled claims raised by a former employee who was terminated while in the hospital seeking medical care for longstanding mental health diagnoses. Land Air paid in excess of $350,000 to settle the employee's claims, and further was obligated to enter into a Consent Decree with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) designed to prevent discrimination on the basis of disability by Land Air in the future. The case marks the first time the EEOC has taken a case involving mental illness in New England. The case also provides a “Monday-morning quarterback” view of just how things can go wrong when a company fails to follow the requirements of the law.

The suit arose when the employee, Donna Malone, began to experience increased mental health symptoms in the Spring and Summer of 1999. Malone had been employed with the company for a number of years and had no negative performance evaluations. In fact, she had no personnel file at all. At least, Land Air was unable to locate any personnel file when faced with a suit. Here arose problem number one for Land Air: It was unable to support any allegations of performance issues with any documentation, making its claims that much weaker on that front.