Laborers' Health & Safety Fund Wins ADA Appeal
Even safety organizations are sometimes sued under the Americans with Disabilities Act. One that did, the Laborers' Health and Safety Fund of North America, won the latest round of Hazel V. Mayers v. Laborers' Health & Safety Fund of North America, No. 05-7137, when a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit agreed March 2 that Mayers had filed her suit too late.
Mayers filed suit in September 2001 after filing a complaint against LHSFNA with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in March 2001.
While the lower court granted a summary judgment to the fund -- ruling it had provided an electric stapler and cutter in response to pain caused by her rheumatoid arthritis, "albeit late," in the court's words -- the appeals court held that the fund provided the tools in June 2000, and she had to allege some retaliatory or discriminatory act within 180 days of her filing of the EEOC complaint.