Obtained Summary Judgment in Disability Discrimination Case

We represented a coal company in federal court on multiple employment discrimination claims in a failure to hire case following the company’s asset acquisition of an operating mine. We obtained summary judgment a month before the scheduled jury trial. The court ruled for defendant for two reasons: 1) Even if plaintiff could prove a prima facie case, he did not produce evidence to rebut the employer’s legitimate business reasons for its decision; and 2) The West Virginia Human Rights Act does not require an employer to provide, as an accommodation, the less physically demanding communications job the plaintiff sought when the buyer filled the job with the same person who was working in that communications job immediately before the sale took place.