US Supreme Court to hear Florida firefighter’s disability discrimination case

Author: Martin E. Comas
Guardian Orlando

SANFORD, Fla. — The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether a Sanford firefighter can sue for discrimination because her disability benefits were cut after she retired due to Parkinson’s disease.

“I demand justice not only for myself, but for the countless numbers of disabled firefighters and other disabled workers across the country who deserve to receive retirement benefits without discrimination,” Karyn Stanley, a retired firefighter, wrote in a text message provided to the Orlando Sentinel by one of his lawyers, Patricia Sigman of Lake Mary.

It’s an issue that affects millions of disabled people who rely on benefits from previous employers and millions of future workers who become disabled, Stanley’s lawyers said in their petition filed in March with the Supreme Court to hear the case — known as a writ of certiorari. The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case on Monday.

The Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in October that Stanley could not sue Sanford under the Americans with Disabilities Act for loss of health insurance subsidies because she was no longer a city employee. Three other districts around the country have ruled the same way in similar lawsuits brought by former employees who wanted to protect their retirement benefits and claimed they were discriminated against.

However, rulings in two other districts favored workers, finding that ADA requirements were ambiguous and the law was created to protect workers.

Stanley has asked the Supreme Court to decide the dispute during its next term, which begins Oct. 7. The case is Stanley v. City of Sanford, Florida.

She was hired by the city as a firefighter in February 1999 and worked her way up the ranks to lieutenant over the years.

In 2016, she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. She continued working as a firefighter for two years until the disease and its accompanying physical disabilities made it impossible for her to continue.

She retired in November 2018 at age 47. Under the city’s disability retirement package, Stanley received benefits of about $1,000 a month, and the city paid her health insurance premiums.

Stanley was unaware that in 2003 the city had changed its benefit plan for disabled retirees while implementing budget cuts during a difficult fiscal year.

Under the revised plan, disabled retirees receive health insurance for two years after leaving city employment. After that, former employees are responsible for their own health insurance and medical costs. Sanford employees can retire with full benefits after 25 years, but Stanley has signed up for just 20 years.

Stanley filed a lawsuit in the The United States District Court for the Central District of Florida in Orlando in April 2020 — eight months before her disability benefits ended.

Her lawsuit argues that by changing her benefits plan, Sanford violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. As a result, it said, the city’s decision to reduce health insurance subsidies was discriminatory against her as a disabled retiree.

“The reduction in the city’s health insurance subsidy did not apply equally to non-disabled retirees who continue to receive the city’s health insurance subsidy until age 65,” Sigman said in court papers.

Her lawyers added that the city’s “discriminatory benefits policy… clearly treats disabled retirees worse than others.”

Lower court and appellate judges disagreed and dismissed the lawsuit, finding she could not sue the city for discrimination because she was no longer an employee.

“Because the ADA prohibits discrimination only against individuals who hold or seek to keep a job, we found that the former employee could not bring a claim” under the ADA, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled.

City officials and Jessica Conner, an Orlando attorney representing Sanford, declined to comment.

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But in a court filing last month opposing Stanley’s petition to the U.S. Supreme Court, Conner argued that the former firefighter did not meet all the requirements to receive benefits.

“Had she worked 25 years, she would have received it regardless of her disability,” the filing reads. “While the reason for her early retirement is indeed tragic, it does not make the denial of the subsidy until age 65 unlawful or even unfair.

“Able-bodied retirees with only 20 years of service also did not receive the subsidy until they were 65, no matter how unfortunate their reasons for early retirement. In fact, (Stanley) was treated better than able-bodied retirees at the same level of service because, although they did not receive any subsidy, (Stanley) received it for 24 months out of sympathy for her disability.”

A city official said Tuesday that Stanley continues to receive retirement benefits from the Firefighters’ Retirement Plan, but did not provide additional details.

Stanley did not return calls seeking comment but left a text message with her lawyer.

“I hope the court rules that people like me do not lose legal protections under the Americans with Disabilities Act just because they retire,” Stanley said in a text message.