Roberta Kowitz v. Trinity Health

The court’s opinion is significant doctrinally, because it collapses two elements of a disability discrimination claim. The decision effectively eliminates what this court consistently has called a “predicate requirement”—ie., that an employee seeking a reasonable accommodation from her employer must clearly request accommodation before the employer has an obligation to engage in the “interactive process” contemplated by the Americans with Disabilities Act. Because Roberta Kowitz never requested an accommodation for the disability that made her unable to perform an essential function of her…