JOHNSTOWN – A Western Pennsylvania man claims that the Norfolk Southern Railway Company violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, when it did not hire him for a signalman position it was looking to fill.
Josh Snyder filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania on April 24 versus Norfolk Southern Railway Company, of Atlanta, Ga.
“Snyder suffers from monocular vision. Snyder’s monocular vision results from a physical disorder, physical condition or anatomical loss affecting his special sense organs. Snyder’s monocular vision does not prevent him from holding a CDL. Snyder’s monocular vision does not prevent him from performing the essential functions of a signalman position. Signalmen install and maintain the signals controlling train traffic. Signalmen typically work with a crew, not by themselves. While one person on the crew may need to be able to drive a commercial vehicle, depending on the task being performed, not every person on the crew needs to be able to drive a commercial vehicle,” the suit states.
“Accordingly, Norfolk Southern does not require that every employee holding a signalman position have a CDL. Neither does Norfolk Southern require that every employee holding a signalman position be able to hold a CDL. Norfolk Southern does not require that each applicant to whom it offers a signalman position hold a CDL. Norfolk Southern does not require that each applicant to whom it offers a signalman position be able to hold a CDL. On April 27, 2022, Snyder applied for a signalman position with Norfolk Southern. On May 9, 2022, Norfolk Southern offered the position to him. Snyder accepted the offer.”
The suit provides that after Snyder accepted the offer, Norfolk Southern ordered him to submit to a physical, which he did, and it demonstrated that Norfolk Southern knew that Snyder suffers from monocular vision – and that the company knew of the diagnosis at the time it offered Snyder the position.
“Despite already knowing that Snyder suffers from monocular vision, Norfolk Southern withdrew his job offer, telling him that his monocular vision prevented him from being able to obtain a CDL, which it claimed was an essential function of the signalman position. Operating a commercial vehicle is, in fact, not an essential function of every signalman position. Snyder’s monocular vision does not, in fact, prevent him from obtaining a CDL. This is something Norfolk Southern knew or should have known both based on the plain language of the regulations governing CDLs and because it knew Snyder had his medical card, the precursor to him obtaining a CDL. Even assuming arguendo that being able to obtain a CDL is an essential function of every signalman position and that Norfolk Southern was unsure whether Snyder could obtain a CDL, it could have had had him submit to a road test, which would have clarified the matter,” the suit says.
“Norfolk Southern did not have Snyder submit to a road test. It is not at all clear why Norfolk Southern did not have Snyder submit to a road test. To the extent that Norfolk Southern expected Snyder to arrange for and pay for the road test, that [information] was not communicated to him. In any event, requiring disabled employees to pay for testing that is not required of other employees is itself a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. So too was Norfolk Southern withdrawing the job it offered to Snyder.”
For one count of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the plaintiff requests that the Court find Norfolk Southern acted in violation of the ADA, that the Court order Norfolk Southern to award him the position it had offered to him, pay to him an award for compensatory damages arising from loss of income and benefits in an amount to be determined by the trier of fact, pay to him an award for garden-variety emotional distress in an amount to be determined by the trier of fact, pay to him an award for costs (including litigation and expert costs), disbursements, attorney’s fees and pay to him an award for of the maximum amount of punitive damages allowed by statute.
The plaintiff is represented by Nicholas Thompson of Casey Jones Law Firm, in Minneapolis, Minn.
The defendant has not yet obtained legal counsel.
U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania case 3:24-cv-00090
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com