Key Holding: Fired employee with temporary impairment sufficiently severe to substantially limit major life activity may have actual disability under the ADA Amendments Act.
Key Takeaway: Construing the ADAAA and deferring to EEOC’s revised regulations, Fourth Circuit is first federal appeals court to rule sufficiently severe temporary impairments can be actual disabilities under the act.
A temporary impairment caused by an injury may be a covered “disability” under the ADA Amendments Act if it’s “sufficiently severe” to substantially limit a major life activity, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled Jan. 23 (Summers v. Altarum Inst., Corp., 4th Cir., 13-1645, 1/23/14).
Reversing a district court’s dismissal of an ADA wrongful termination claim, the Fourth Circuit said plaintiff Carl Summers, who was fired as a senior analyst by the Altarum Institute less than two months after sustaining serious injuries to both legs that prevented him from walking normally for at .
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