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French v. Hawaii Pizza Hut9/30/2004
ic impairments of short duration with little or no long-term impact usually are not 'disabilities.'" Pizza Hut asserts that Appellant's lifting limitation lasted only five months with minimal long term impact and is therefore not a disability. Furthermore, Pizza Hut maintains that, assuming Appellant's twenty-five-pound restriction was a permanent impairment, the restriction did not substantially limit the activity of lifting.
A number of federal cases cited by Pizza Hut conclude that a twenty-five-pound lifting restriction, as a matter of law, does not constitute a "disability" within the meaning of the ADA. However, the federal circuits are divided over the issue. Other federal courts recognize that lifting limitations substantially restricted the respective plaintiffs from engaging in a major life activity.
We conclude that a grant of summary judgment in this case is inappropriate to determine whether a lifting restriction substantially limited Appellant's ability to perform the major life activity of lifting. In Leicht v. Hawaiian Airlines, Inc., 77 F. Supp. 2d 1134, 1148 (D. Haw. 1999), rev'd on other grounds, 15 Fed. Appx. 552 (9th Cir. 2001), the federal district court said that a determination of whether a disability substantially limits one or more major life activities requires a case-by-case analysis "looking at the effect the impairment has on the life of the individual." The United States Supreme Court has declared that "whether a person has a disability under the ADA is an individualized inquiry." Sutton, 527 U.S. at 473 (emphasis in original).
The Supreme Court in Toyota Motor Mfg., Kentucky, Inc. v. Williams, 534 U.S. 184 (2002), explained that the ADA "defines 'disability' 'with respect to an individual'" and "'makes clear' that 'Congress intended the existence of a disability to be determined in . . . a case-by-case manner.'" Id. at 198 (quoting Sutton, 527 U.S. at 473). The Supreme Court further posited that "the determination of whether an individual has a disability is not necessarily based on the name or diagnosis of the impairment the person has, but rather on the effect of that impairment on the life of the individual." Id. (quoting 29 C.F.R. pt. 1630, App. § 1630.2(j) (2001)). Thus, "the determination of whether an individual is substantially limited in a major life activity must be made on a case-by-case basis." Id. (citation omitted).
Similarly, in Bitney, in applying the ADA we held that the definition of disability requires that "disabilities be evaluated 'with respect to an individual' and be determined based on whether an impairment substantially limits the 'major life activities of such an individual.'" 96 Hawaii at 253, 30 P.3d at 267 (quoting U.S.C. § 12102(2)). The plaintiff alleged her employer discriminated against her because she suffered from dyslexia. Id. at 248, 30 P.3d at 262. Our decision that the plaintiff's impairment did not limit her in any major life activity was based on the facts established by the plaintiff's own academic, employment, and residential histories, as well as her performance and personnel records at the Honolulu Police Department. Id. at 249, 30 P.3d at 263. In this case, however, genuine issues of material fact exist as to the effect the impairment has on Appellant.
In the instant case, the court incorrectly concluded that "regardless of the duration of the lifting restriction[,] 25 pounds is simply not substantially enough in this court's mind as a matter of law." (Emphasis added.) Such a ruling does not account for the effect the impairment has on Appellant's life. It is a fundamental principle in disability law that the issue of whether a plaintiff's major life activity is substantially
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