Alaska Employment Law

ADA and alcoholism:  The 9th Circuit has affirmed summary judgment for an employer that fired an employee who failed an alcohol test during work hours.  The employee claimed discrimination based on his disability of alcoholism. 

The Court stated:

The evidence shows that Sierra terminated Daft for his misconduct, failing an alcohol test during work hours in violation of Sierra’s drug and alcohol policy and Daft’s Return to Work agreement, rather than his alleged status as an alcoholic. Termination for such misconduct is permitted under the ADA, even if the misconduct was related to Daft’s alleged disability. See Collings, 63 F.3d at 833; 42 U.S.C. § 12112(c)(4).

Daft v. Sierra Pacific Power Co. , No. 05-16785 (9th Cir. Oct. 18, 2007)(unpub.)

ERISA record and standard of review: The 9th Circuit has reversed Judge John Sedwick (sitting in the District of Arizona) after he entered summary judgment against the employee seeking ERISA benefits. 

In applying abuse of discretion review and ruling that discovery beyond the administrative record was unavailable, the district court faithfully applied the relevant law at the time. That law has since been overruled by Abatie v. Alta Health & Life Insurance Co., 458 F.3d 955 (9th Cir. 2006) (en banc).

In Abatie, the Court held that a more searching form of the abuse of discretion standard applies when the employee shows the administrator labored under a conflict of interest, even if the plan expressly confers discretion on the administrator, and that the court may look beyond the administrative record to determine the presence of a conflict of interest.                               

Sereno v. VPA, Inc., No. 05-16893 (9th Cir. Oct. 18, 2007)(unpub.)