By Reba Weiss and Harrison Owens
In Kuehn v. Snohomish County, the Washington State Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of a Road Maintenance worker’s claims against the County for wrongful termination and disability discrimination in violation of Washington’s Law Against Discrimination (WLAD) and Family Leave Act (WFLA). In his suit, the worker claimed that the County wrongfully terminated him for repeated tardiness allegedly caused by a sleeping disorder, and wrongfully decided to discontinue accommodating his disability. The trial court found that the worker waited too long to file his lawsuit, and granted the County’s motion for summary judgment. The Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court, holding that the legal time-limit to file the worker’s lawsuit began its countdown from the moment he received notice of his impending termination from his employer.
Mr. James Kuehn began working for Snohomish County’s Road Maintenance Division in 1993 and held his position as a Road Maintenance Worker until his termination in 2007. In 1999, Mr. Kuehn notified the county that he suffered from a sleep disorder that impaired his ability to arrive to work on time. The County accommodated his disability, including excusing tardiness directly caused by his sleeping disorder. Tardiness not caused by his disability would be subject to discipline and the sixth instance of tardiness would merit termination.
Mr. Kuehn accumulated a number of tardiness instances by 2007, and the County determined that these were not directly related to his sleeping disorder. The County determined that Mr. Kuehn may have violated the tardiness policy for the fifth and sixth times in June and July of 2007, and scheduled two pre-disciplinary hearings to decide what discipline would be applied. Later in July 2007, Mr. Kuehn asked the County to provide him more time to receive further medical testing before determining what disciplinary action it would take. The County granted this request and moved the deadline to July 31, 2007. Mr. Kuehn and his medical providers failed to meet the new deadline. The County found that the tardiness instances in June and July were unexcused and imposed termination as discipline for the sixth instance of tardiness. On August 2, 2015, the County sent Mr. Kuehn a letter stating that his termination date was effective August 16, 2007 and he would be on paid administrative leave until then.
Mr. Kuehn filed two grievances in response to the disciplinary actions of the County, and provided a letter from his doctor dated August 16, 2007, that related to his recent medical examination. The County denied the grievances and found that the letter did not provide any new relevant information. Mr. Kuehn filed a complaint in district court on October 13, 2010, more than three years after the date he received the letter notifying him of his impending termination. The district court granted the County’s motion for summary judgment, finding that the statute of limitations, meaning the legal time-limit for filing his lawsuit, had expired before Mr. Kuehn had filed.
The Court of Appeals affirmed the district court’s dismissal of the case. Under Washington statutory law, the statute of limitations for lawsuits under WLAD is three years. The Washington State Supreme Court has previously held that the discharge of an employee is effective on the date the employer communicates notice of termination, or intent to terminate at a future date, to the employee. The Court of Appeals found that the trial court properly found that Mr. Kuehn’s legal countdown began ticking on August 2, 2007, and therefore the statute of limitations expired on August 2, 2010.
The Court of Appeals also found that a cause of action for disability discrimination accrues when the employer makes a decision not to accommodate the employee’s disability, and notifies the employee. The Court of Appeals found that the County notified Mr. Kuehn of its decision to discontinue its accommodation of his disability on August 2, 2007, because its letter to Mr. Kuehn stated that he was being terminated due to his sixth unexcused instance of tardiness. This constituted notification that the County was not accommodating those instances of tardiness under its disability plan because they were not related to his sleeping disorder. Therefore, the Court of Appeals affirmed the district court’s finding that the statute of limitations for Mr. Kuehn’s disability discrimination claim expired on August 2, 2010.
In affirming the district court’s decision, the Court of Appeals found that (1) the statute of limitations for wrongful termination claims begins when an employee receives notice of intent to discharge him on a later date; and (2) the statute of limitations for a disability discrimination claim begins when the employer communicates its decision to not accommodate the employee’s disability to the employee.
The moral of this story is DON’T WAIT TOO LONG to file a lawsuit. The statute of limitations, meaning the time one has to bring a lawsuit for employment discrimination in the State of Washington, expires three (3) years from the date you receive the notice of termination. After three years from the date of the termination notice, your right to sue is void. This is a strict rule that is not often (if ever) invalidated.
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