Potter v. Xerox Corp.
Potter v. Xerox Corp.
Opinion of the Court
SUMMARY ORDER
ON CONSIDERATION WHEREOF, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED, ADJUDGED, AND DECREED that the judgment of said District Court be and it hereby is AFFIRMED.
Plaintiff-Appellant Michael G. Potter appeals the district court’s grant of summary judgment for defendants-appellees Xerox Corporation and Health International Inc.
Potter, born in 1945, began working for Xerox in 1965, until, in 1996, Potter left work on disability leave after suffering chest pains. Potter suffered from panic and anxiety attacks, along with severe depression, resulting from work related stress — or, more specifically, the stress of working with his supervisor. While some evaluating physicians regarded Potter as totally disabled and unable to work, others viewed him as capable of working provided he did not work under his old supervisor. Health International, the administrator of Xerox’s employee disability plan, relied on the physicians’ view that Potter was able to work under a different supervisor and denied him long term disability benefits.
Potter brought suit against Xerox and Health International alleging disability discrimination in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), 42 U.S.C. § 12101 et seq., and age discrimination in violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (“ADEA”), 42 U.S.C. § 621 et seq. In an order of March 31, 2000, the district court granted summary judgment for the defendants. The district court dismissed Potter’s ADA claim against Health International, which seemed to allege that he was denied disability benefits in violation of the ADA, because the ADA does not provide a cause of action for improper denial of benefits. See Potter v. Xerox Corp., 88 F.Supp.2d 109, 112 (W.D.N.Y. 2000). Potter’s ADA claim against Xerox failed because he could not show that he had a disability as that term is defined under the ADA. See id. at 112. Finally, the district court dismissed Potter’s age discrimination claim against Xerox because the evidence supporting it was negligible. See id. at 115.
We agree. Potter has alternately stated — and the record supports — two contradicting propositions: 1) that he is totally disabled and thereby unable to perform any job; and 2) that he can perform any job provided his stress-related problems are resolved by placing him under a new supervisor.
Finally, the scant evidence Potter offers to support his ADEA claim is insufficient to support a prima facie case of age discrimination because the supervisor accused of having a discriminatory bias based on age did not participate in the decision to dismiss Potter.
. Potter's peculiar position arises from seeking, on the one hand, long term disability benefits from his employer and, on the other hand, reinstatement in some position in the wake of Health International's denial of long term benefits. Xerox’s position mirrors the contradiction in Potter’s position: on the one hand, its employee benefits plan administrator affirms Potter is able to work to justify denying long-term disability benefits while, on the other hand, Xerox seeks to hold Potter to his own assertion that he cannot work in order to justify denying him the protections of the ADA. Unfortunately for Potter, even disregarding Xerox's urging that he should be viewed as totally disabled, we are left to conclude that Potter cannot make out a prima facie case under the ADA.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Michael G. POTTER v. XEROX CORPORATION and Health International Inc.
- Cited By
- 9 cases
- Status
- Published