SAN FRANCISCO — The California Supreme Court on Thursday made it easier for disabled workers to sue their employers for discrimination in a decision that will affect hundreds of pending lawsuits in California.
The state high court unanimously ruled that a California law barring discrimination in jobs and housing protects people with conditions that limit their participation in a major activity. By contrast, federal law protects the disabled from discrimination on the job only if the condition "substantially" restricts one or more major activities.
The court, in its ruling, said the state's broader definition of disability applied even before the Legislature changed state law in 2001 to make it more protective of workers. As a result, "thousands and thousands" more people are eligible for disability protection in California courts than in federal courts, said William Quackenbush, an employment lawyer in Northern California.
"It is a very valuable advantage for California employees," he said.
For example, carpal tunnel syndrome, a nerve injury often caused by repetitive motions of the hand, is a disability under state law but probably not under federal law, Quackenbush said.
"This important decision affirms that all Californians have always and will continue to receive full protection and access to legal recourse if they are refused jobs, fired or harassed in the workplace based on a physical disability," said Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer, whose office sided with the employee in the case.
Francisco Colmenares, a San Fernando Valley laborer, filed the lawsuit when his employer, the Braemar Country Club in Tarzana, fired him after 25 years on the job. Colmenares had injured his back while working in 1981, and the country club accommodated his injury by assigning him light duties. In 1982, the club promoted him to foreman in charge of golf course maintenance, a job he could handle with his back problems.
Colmenares, who is now in his mid-50s, continued to earn positive job evaluations as foreman until he got a new supervisor in 1995. The new supervisor gave him poor reviews and eventually reassigned him from golf course maintenance to supervising construction of a clubhouse, a job that required heavy labor.
In 1997, the club fired him for "deficiencies in his work performance." Colmenares sued, charging he was fired because of his bad back. The country club countered that he had no disability under state law because his back injury did not "substantially" limit a major life activity. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ronald E. Cappai ruled for the club, and Colmenares appealed.
