The Sonic drive-in restaurant in Winter Haven, Florida, was robbed four times during the course of a year. On at least two occasions, a robber showed up at closing time, with a handgun, and ordered employees to open the safe or suffer the consequences. Despite the threats, no employee was hurt.
The Sonic employees working the late shift, naturally, were rattled by these events. Several employees submitted a letter to Sonic management complaining that they were “afraid for their lives” and did not feel the restaurant’s safety measures were adequate. Four of the employees who signed on to the letter apparently felt this fear warranted a lawsuit, so they sued Sonic in state court alleging tort claims for negligent training and retention and negligent failure to provide a safe workplace. When they later added a claim of “regarded as” disability discrimination under the ADA, Sonic removed the lawsuit to federal court.
According to the plaintiffs, Sonic regarded them as disabled because they feared for their safety at work and fired them as a result. The court readily dismissed the ADA claim, even assuming for argument’s sake that the fear for their safety was a mental impairment for the purposes of the statute. To show that Sonic discriminated against the plaintiffs because it regarded them as disabled, the plaintiffs were required to prove that their perceived impairment was not “transitory or minor” or had an expected duration of more than six months. Because Plaintiffs could not show their fear would last more than six months, they were unable to prove that Sonic fired them for a perceived disability. Accordingly, the federal court dismissed the ADA claim and remanded the negligence claims back to state court. Wallner v. MHV Sonics Inc., Case No.: 8:10-cv-02039-JDW-EAJ (M.D. Fla. Nov. 4, 2011).