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Leonberger v. Martin Marietta Materials, Inc.

Summary judgment was properly granted to the employer on an Americans with Disabilities Act claim where the employee was fired because he constantly nodded off while operating heavy machinery, creating a danger to himself and others and the employer did not care whether the cause of his nodding off was sleep apnea -- it merely did not want groggy employees operating its machines.

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The full case caption appears at the end of this opinion.

Arlie Leonberger suffers from sleep apnea, a serious disorder that causes a person to stop breathing for brief periods of time while asleep; the oxygen deprivation that results disrupts the person’s normal sleep cycle, leaving the individual very tired and with a tendency to fall asleep during the day. Beginning in 1967, Leonberger had a job working in a rock quarry that was eventually owned by the defendant, Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (Martin). Martin became concerned about Leonberger’s tendency to “nod off” on the job after it received complaints to that effect. After efforts to obtain medical treatment failed (for reasons we detail below), Martin fired him. Leonberger sued under the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), 42 U.S.C. sec.sec. 12101 et seq., but the district court granted summary judgment for Martin. We agree that Leonberger has not pointed to any triable issue of fact and is not entitled to judgment. We therefore affirm.

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