Montana court says obesity may be impairment, protected against discrimination

[Twitchin Kitten]

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Montana court says obesity may be impairment, protected against discrimination <-- clicky


July 07, 2012 5:30 pm • Associated Press
(3) Comments

HELENA – The state Supreme Court says obesity qualifies as an impairment in some cases under the Montana Human Rights Act, potentially allowing obese people to seek greater protection against discrimination.

The divided court handed down the ruling Friday in a case between Eric Feit and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, finding that if a person’s weight is outside the normal range and affects one or more body systems, it may constitute a physical or mental impairment – even if it’s not a symptom of some underlying disease or health condition.

The case began in 2009, when Feit filed a complaint with the Montana Department of Labor contending BNSF withdrew a conditional offer to hire him as a conductor trainee because of the “significant health and safety risks associated with extreme obesity,” the Helena Independent Record reported.

According to court documents, the company told Feit in 2008 that the position he had applied for was “safety sensitive.” The company said Feit wouldn’t be considered unless he lost 10 percent of his body weight or successfully completed additional physical examinations at his own expense, and even if he did he wouldn’t be guaranteed a job.

Feit completed all the physical tests requested by BNSF except for a sleep test, which cost $1,800 and which he said he couldn’t afford, court records said. Then he set out to lose 10 percent of his weight, which he contends he did, though the company says he didn’t document the weight loss. The court documents don’t appear to reveal how much Feit weighed.

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A hearing officer with the department agreed with Feit the following year, finding that BNSF refused to hire him because it regarded him as disabled, and awarded Feit damages. BNSF appealed to the Montana Human Rights Commission, which upheld the Department of Labor’s finding, and then the railway took the matter to federal court.

U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy asked the Montana Supreme Court to clarify the state law.

Three Montana Supreme Court justices dissented with the majority decision: Justices Brian Morris, Mike McGrath and James Rice.

Morris and McGrath said interpretive guidance from the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission requires a plaintiff to prove that they have an underlying physiological condition or disorder if they want to claim they were discriminated against because of obesity. And Rice said recent changes to the federal Americans with Disabilities Act shouldn’t be considered when applying Montana’s law to Feit’s claim, because the changes were made after the dispute between Feit and BNSF. Federal cases decided under earlier versions of the ADA held that obesity isn’t important unless tied to a physiological disorder, he noted.

Justices Beth Baker, James Nelson, Mike Wheat and Patricia O’Brien Cotter joined in the majority decision.

[Twilla]

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Sounds like they made the guy jump through hoops and they still denied him the job. It's too bad the state has to make a law regarding ALL obese people though.

A sleep test? Why the hell would you need that for a job?

[Twitchin Kitten]

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I've seen severely overweight people have trouble staying awake the minute they sit still.

As a conductor, he would have to stay alert to avoid mishaps.

I think employers should have the right to determine who and who cannot have a job when it comes to safety standards. Find him something he can do instead.

I also don't think the obese should be put in a protective class. Fuck, I'm short, I'm going to start that short people be protected. where does this crap stop?

They shouldn't have made him jump through hoops like that, it should have been a flat out no. He should have walked away and not spent his money unless he was sure he would get that job.

[Gunnen4u]

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Ugh, our state courts are packed with retards since the early 2000s. I feel no pity for morbidly obese people. If the guy goes through with things and loses weight, fine, but making it so every fat fuck like the assholes who damn near break the scooters at Walmart get to be protected? I am sorry, but, no wait, I am not sorry, not sorry at all for the fact reality dictates obese people cannot do the same shit regular sized people can, they are a health insurance nightmare, and are literally dead weight oftentimes on the rest of the workforce. The truth hurts, I know, but there it is. The plantiff didn't seem to have his shit together at all, but I guess when it comes down to little guy vs. big name employer, you have to suck the little guy off no matter how fucking retarded it is.

It sucks that such assholes as these judges are *elected*, because we have a human flood of white flight faggots from fucking New England, California, and whatever shithole they came from that move here and decide to bring the same shit with them. They need to fix Montana to make it nice, apparently. I wish we could ban white flighters from this state. Go live in the paradise of dumb shit you fucks created elsewhere.

I have these names down, and I am voting against them whenever they come up for election again. At least we can shitcan our judges for being over reaching fucktards (and to wit, these judges are often better than ones I have read of elsewhere).

[Twilla]

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I'm too lazy to look it up but I kind of imagine Montana being one of the least obese states in the country. Maybe this law isn't all that far reaching there?

[Gunnen4u]

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Yea, we are at least in the top ten least obese, if not better. People are overall pretty healthy here.

Still, the fact this ruling was made is ludicrous.

[Twilla]

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I didn't know you were in Montana. We're nearly neighbors.

[LKTraz]

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Does it suck that the guy didn't get the job? Kinda. BUT it was made known to him that even if he went through all the shit that he was not guaranteed the job. At that point it became his own choice as to whether he was going to take the chance that he MIGHT get the job if he did everything.

Like TK said, guess I could make the case that since I'm short it's a disability and they can't prevent me from working for a basketball team. Forget that I can't play the game for shit regardless of my height.

I once tried to work for a company hauling garbage. As part of the job I had to climb up on the front of the trailer and pull back the tarp. At my height, my legs are too short for me to stabilize myself against the tractor like taller drivers do and because of this I had to try and balance on a very small ledge on the front of the trailer with only my toes on it. You can imagine what that was like with wind blowing. I didn't feel safe doing that so I told them. I worked for them for 3 days and that was enough for me to determine that I simply couldn't do the job safely. I thanked them for the chance at the job and they told me that if I ever reconsidered that I shouldn't hesitate to come back and they would gladly put me back in one of their trucks.

Now if I was a whining asshole I would have complained to some court that they HAD to accommodate me somehow. Well fuck that. The common sense answer was the one I went with and simply figured that I couldn't safely do the job so I quit and found someplace else to work.