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Clark County commission settles UMC claustrophobia lawsuit
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LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Updated: Jul. 6, 2011 | 7:50 a.m.
A woman who claimed that University Medical Center refused to take the needed steps to ease the severe claustrophobia she suffered while working in a cubicle will receive a $150,000 settlement.
While employed as a medical data technician, Jayne Feshold complained to her supervisors at the county hospital in 2007 that the cubicle she recently had moved into caused her acute anxiety, interfering with her job.
Two doctors diagnosed her symptoms as rooted in claustrophobia.
Despite that, managers in two different jobs at the hospital wouldn't accommodate her malady by moving her to more open spaces, Feshold said in her lawsuit. In 2008, she was fired.
County counsel Mary-Anne Miller noted Tuesday that Feshold had documentation to back her claims. She recommended that the county settle for $150,000.
Commissioners, including a wary Steve Sisolak, approved the settlement.
"This seems ridiculous on the surface," Sisolak said. "I don't want to open the floodgates. I can't imagine there are any merits in this."
He questioned whether claustrophobia is a legitimate medical ailment.
If carefully documented, Miller said, claustrophobia is covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act. And if the employer fails to take the necessary steps to accommodate the worker's condition, a jury could find in the person's favor, she added.
After the meeting, Commissioner Susan Brager said she wasn't worried about the county setting a precedent for people who work in cubicles to file bogus lawsuits against their employers.
"She had documentation; she had doctors attest to it," Brager said. "She had a lot of proof."
Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani said heads of the county's human resources and other departments must be trained to respond properly to those kinds of impairments.
"Not all disabilities are visible or tied directly to a physical problem," Giunchigliani said.
Miller said procedures for handling such illnesses are already in place; they just failed in this case.
"We learned a lot from this, and I don't think we'll be making that same mistake again," Miller said.
Contact reporter Scott Wyland at swyland@review journal.com or 702-455-4519.
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Really?? I bet when she applied for the job, she didn't fill out that little area on her application that say, "Is there any medical condition that would prevent you from doing your job?" The county should have looked long and hard at that, because I'm sure she wasn't honest about her "condition" when she applied.
ONLY IN AMERICA. What a Scam!! This con artist is confined to a vehicle to/from work each day!! Gone are the days of simply Quitting a job.
The Legal Precedent has now been set. Just watch the news for more frivolus lawsuits that will further burden the Insurance Companies, causing the rest of us to pay for them in Higher Premiums to us. The next clever individual is ALREADY schemeing their lawsuit. And it won't be cheap.
@266.h..So if UMC refused to provide accommodations for a person in a wheel chair, would you demand he/she just get a job elsewhere. What if the person ended up in the wheelchair because UMC decided that lighting stairwells is just too expensive, you don't like it buy a flashlight. What if the the woman developed cancer and needed accommodation to receive treatment? Does that offend you? Exactly what extensive education do you have that allows you to place validity on someone's disability. I would assume the same experience that allows you to promote the County just ignore federal law. Perhaps your desire to promote lawlessness is reason that if any piece of crap leave the country, it should be you.
Sure, the doctors are advisors or consultants for the attorneys that are suing. Ridiculous.
Unfortunately, a clever patient can easily fool a doctor (or two) into labeling her with a disease. I'm not saying that this woman in fact duped the doctors, but we should admit that even two doctors giving her a diagnosis of claustrophobia doesn't necessarily make it legit. Consider the rampant disability fraud and epidemic in prescription pain pills in the US - all of it happens with the doctors' consent.
The lawyers who settled this are the 43 "prosecutors" who deal with civil issues affecting the County and are paid an average of 166K a year. The County should have fought this tooth and nail. The dictionary definition of claustrophobia is an unnatural fear of confined spaces. A cubicle is not a confined space as a matter of common sense; I could see this claim if the County forced her to work in scuba gear in the sewers (which is where she belongs anyway). This settlement is ridiculous, and once again I set forth my plea: Give me a decent return on my tax dollars, not the most overpaid, incompetent and arrogant attorneys in the land.
The county shouldn't have settled this case with this scammer for one penny. This sends a message to all the other grifters out there that the county will settle frivolous lawsuits so line up for some free money. If she didn't like working in a cubicle, she was free to look for another job where the workplace suited her better.
I just love how flippant people can be about someone else's ailments. The woman is diagnosed not once, but twice with claustrophobia, and her bosses basically tell her to "Go to Hell".
If you ask me, UMC got off lightly. Jayne Feshold nets approximately $65,000 out of this settlement, and she loses her job.
Think about how YOU would feel, before you criticize.
The problem UMC got themselves in to was the workers disability was accommodated and she was allowed to work in an open area for a long period of time. Only once her supervisor changed they forced her to work back in the cubicle. UMC was effectively recognizing the workers disability then the supervisor unilaterally decided not to accommodate the workers disability.