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Trowbridge v. Scranton Artificial Limb Co.3/23/2000
[J-059-99]
ARGUED: April 26, 1999
OPINION ANNOUNCING THE JUDGMENT OF THE COURT
Geraldine and Gordon Trowbridge (Appellants), have appealed from the order of the Superior Court that affirmed the Order of Court of Common Pleas of Lackawanna County (trial court), which dismissed Appellant's Pennsylvania Human Relations Act complaint. For the reasons that follow, we reverse the order of the Superior Court and remand this matter to the Court of Common Pleas of Lackawanna County.
FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
The Scranton Artificial Limb Company (Appellee) employed Appellant, in a clerical capacity, from June 3, 1975 through February 6, 1989. Throughout her employment, Appellant suffered from muscular dystrophy, a progressive disease characterized by the wasting of one's muscles, and she was confined to a wheelchair. On February 6, 1989, Herbert Niehuus, the owner of Appellee Company, told Appellant that she would be laid off from her job with Appellee in two weeks. She resigned the same day.
On September 8, 1989, Appellant applied for Social Security Administration (SSA) disability insurance benefits. In her application for benefits, Appellant stated, under penalty of perjury, that she "became unable to work because of disabling condition [muscular dystrophy] on February 6, 1988." In order to be entitled to disability insurance benefit payments, an applicant must be suffering from a "disability" that is defined in 42 U.S.C. § 423(d)(1)(A) as the "inability to engage in any substantial gainful activity by reason of any medically determinable physical or mental impairment which can be expected to result in death or which has lasted or can be expected to last for a continuous period of not less than 12 months." (Emphasis added). Appellant's application for SSA disability benefits was approved, and she has received those benefits continuously since 1989.
On July 9, 1990 (seventeen months after the termination of her job), Appellant filed the lawsuit before this Court today. In it, she claimed that the termination of her employment with Appellee was illegal and discriminatory, in violation of the provisions of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act (PHRA). Section 955(a) of the PHRA provides that it shall be an unlawful discriminatory practice for any employer to discharge from employment any individual because of a "non-job related handicap or disability." A non-job related handicap or disability means a handicap or disability "which does not substantially interfere with the ability to perform the essential functions" of the individual's employment. 43 P.S. § 954(p) (emphasis added).
Appellee moved for summary judgment on Appellant's PHRA claim. The trial court granted the motion, and dismissed Appellant's complaint, on January 27, 1997. The trial court, applying the doctrine of judicial estoppel, found that Appellant's representations to the SSA, that she was unable to work because of her disability, were irreconcilable with a PHRA claim, which alleged that her disability did not substantially interfere with her ability to perform her job.
On appeal, the Superior Court affirmed the trial court in an unpublished opinion. The Superior Court found that Appellant successfully claimed under the SSA statute that she was unable to perform any substantial gainful activity as of February 6, 1989. They then examined her claim under the PHRA, claiming that she suffered from a disability that did not substantially interfere with her ability to perform the essential functions of her job, and they found that the latter assertion directly contradicted the former. The court applied the doctrine of judicial estoppel, an
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