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Tag: americans with disabilities act
‘Miracle’ Flight Survivor Says PTSD Related To Her Firing

‘Miracle’ Flight Survivor Says PTSD Related To Her Firing

By Mark Washburn, The Charlotte Observer

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A survivor of the “Miracle on the Hudson” flight has filed suit against Staples, alleging the office-product giant fired her in part for taking extended leave because of PTSD related to the crash.

Denise Lockie of Charlotte, a passenger in seat 2C when the New York-to-Charlotte U.S. Airways Flight 1549 crash-landed in the Hudson River on Jan. 15, 2009, says in the suit that she received notice of termination during unpaid leave for treatment of anxiety and acute stress.

Staples, based in Framingham, Mass., did not respond to a request for comment.

In the suit, filed in Mecklenburg Superior Court, Lockie says she was fired in retaliation for seeking leave and because she filed a workers’ compensation claim related to the crash.

Lockie says that after the crash, she began to suffer from anxiety and panic attacks related to flying, though she continued to work full time and flew frequently as an executive for Staples. On one occasion, she says, the jetliner she had boarded had to return from the taxiway to the LaGuardia terminal to let her off because she suffered a panic attack.

In the suit, filed by attorney Sean Herrmann of Van Kampen Law, Lockie says she was treated for acute stress disorder and diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after the crash and has been under psychological and psychiatric care since January 2009. Since the crash, she says, she hasn’t been able to fly in bad weather, on prop planes, or at night.

In December 2012, the suit says, Lockie went on a six-month leave prescribed by her psychologist to “fully recover from the trauma related to the crash.” Six months later, an extension was sought in the leave, but Lockie instead received a form letter from COBRA telling her that it was her new insurer because she’d been terminated. Staples notified her a few days later of her firing, the suit says, which Lockie says violates the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Flight 1549, which lost both engines when it flew into a flock of Canada geese after taking off from LaGuardia Airport, was bound for Charlotte with 150 passengers and a crew of five. Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger was able to coax the 50-ton jetliner onto the Hudson River near the ferry docks, and all aboard were rescued.

An investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board found no one to be at fault in the extraordinary incident and no lawsuits were ever filed against U.S. Airways, the plane’s manufacturer, Airbus, or any other entity involved in the flight. After the NTSB findings, passengers were offered $10,000 in exchange for release against future claims.

Photo via WikiCommons

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Supreme Court Leaves California In Charge Of Disabled Inmates

Supreme Court Leaves California In Charge Of Disabled Inmates

By David G. Savage, Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court turned down a states’ rights appeal from California Governor Jerry Brown on Monday, leaving in place a judge’s order that requires state officials to monitor each of about 2,000 disabled prisoners who are held in county jails.

Without comment, the justices refused to hear Brown’s complaint that the order “violates fundamental federalism principles” by holding the state liable for lapses by local officials.

The court’s dismissal is the latest setback for California’s top officials in a long-running battle with federal judges over the management of the state’s prisons.

Three years ago, the high court upheld judges who said the state’s prisons were so badly overcrowded that they could not provide decent health care for inmates who had medical or mental problems. The only remedy, the court agreed, was to reduce the number of state prisoners.

In response, Brown helped engineer a “realignment” that shifted thousands of low-level offenders and parole violators to county jails. In 2012, the legislature decreed that these inmates were the “sole legal custody” of county officials.

But last year, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the state retained the legal duty to make sure that prisoners who have a disability are given the “reasonable accommodations” required under the Americans With Disabilities Act, even if they are held in a county jail.

“These accommodations include the basic necessities of life for disabled prisoners and parolees, such as wheelchairs, sign-language interpreters, accessible beds and toilets and tapping canes for the blind,” said Judge Stephen Reinhardt for the 9th Circuit. “The state is not absolved of all of its responsibility for ADA obligations as to the parolees” just because they are now held in county jails, he wrote.

The appeals court upheld a 43-page order by U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken, which said state officials must check with each parole violator who is sent to a county jail and has a disability. She said the state must see to it that the inmate receives the accommodations required under the law.

Brown and California Attorney General Kamala Harris appealed to the Supreme Court in March and asked for a review of the 9th Circuit’s decision. It “sets a dangerous and sweeping precedent that effectively nullifies the states’ 10th Amendment right to delegate powers to local governments,” they said. If left standing, it would leave the state “liable for alleged ADA violations in the county jails,” they argued.

Late last year, the state said about 26,000 parolees were being held in 200 jails throughout the state, and 1,889 of them had a disability. This number is constantly changing, they said.

In reply to the appeal, lawyers for the prisoners who sued the state said Brown and Harris had exaggerated the impact of the judge’s order. “At its core, the injunction merely requires the state to provide disability notifications, collect disability data and issue reports to the counties,” they told the court.

After considering the appeal last week, the court said it had denied review in the case of Brown v. Armstrong.

Photo: Wallyg via Flickr