Case Summary

4906 In a college instructor's action against his former employer for disability discrimination, the employer satisfied its burden on summary judgment by proffering as legitimate reasons for reducing the plaintiff's teaching load the school's declining admissions, and plaintiff's failure to enroll in a graduate degree program as required by defendant's policy and that of the accrediting agency; this shifted to plaintiff the burden of showing those reasons were not legitimate; it was found that plaintiff failed to meet this burden, because although plaintiff claimed the reduction in his teaching assignments resulted from his status as HIV positive, he was unable to show that anyone involved in the adverse employment action knew of that status; it was found that an accommodation offered by the employer for plaintiff's unspecified health problem was reasonable; whether the employer engaged in a timely, good faith, interactive process to find a reasonable accommodation was irrelevant, because plaintiff was unable to show a reasonable accommodation other than that offered by the employer that could have been made as the result of such a process; plaintiff's inability to establish his claim of discrimination was fatal to his action for failure to maintain a discrimination-free work environment; plaintiff's resignation did not constitute a constructive termination, because a reasonable employer under the circumstances would not have known that reducing plaintiff's course load would require a reasonable person in plaintiff's position to resign.

SCOTCH v ART INSTITUTE OF CA (Reduced Course Load) 173 CA4 986 [See: GovC 12900 etseq; Knight v Hayward USD 132 CA4 121, T/AT 9/05; Wilson v County 169 CA4 1185, T/AT 2/09]