For the second time in two months, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed summary judgment in favor of the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company in an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) case. The parties had consented to trial before Magistrate Judge Marcia A. Crone, who granted summary judgment for Goodyear.

In a per curiam opinion, Judges E. Grady Jolly, Patrick E. Higginbotham, and W. Eugene Davis ruled that Magistrate Judge Crone correctly found the plaintiff failed to prove that his physical restrictions and his inability to work more than eight hours per day substantially limited a major life activity. The Fifth Circuit found that the plaintiff did not present sufficient evidence to raise a genuine issue of material fact as to whether his chronic back condition was a disability within the meaning of the ADA. Instead, the Court explained that the undisputed evidence showed the plaintiff was able to work at Goodyear's Houston Chemical Plant as a fireman, with his physical restrictions, until he lost the job under the seniority provisions of a new labor agreement.

Team: Richard Brann represented Goodyear, with help from Senior Legal Assistant Deborah Avery and Administrative Assistant Bonnie Landini, all of Houston.