Toland v. Dept. of Mental Health & Addiction Servs.

Citations

• 2020 Ohio 3864

Syllabus

Disability discrimination failure to accommodate retaliation summary judgment Civ.R. 56. Plaintiff, an employee of defendant, filed claims for disability discrimination, retaliation, and failure to accommodate a disability against defendant for events that occurred in the employer/employee relationship. The court found that plaintiff failed to establish a prima facie case for disability discrimination. The court determined that plaintiff was unable to use the indirect method of proving discriminatory intent because she did not provide evidence of an adverse employment action such as reduced pay, demotion, or loss of benefits. Although plaintiff produced evidence that she was given a written reprimand, the written reprimand did not constitute an adverse employment action. The court determined that plaintiff was unable to establish a prima facie case of retaliation because one instance of formal discipline for failing to reschedule a meeting, increased job duties, a performance review of meets expectations, and an office relocation would not dissuade a reasonable worker from making and supporting a charge of discrimination. The court found that plaintiff's claim for failure to accommodate was barred by the statute of limitations because the actions supporting the claim occurred in July 2016 and plaintiff filed her claim in October of 2018. Plaintiff claims she was also not accommodated in June of 2019 however, the court determined that plaintiff did not move to supplement her claim after June 2019 so that claim was not properly before the court. Therefore, the court granted defendant's motion for summary judgment and rendered judgment in favor of the defendant.