By Eric Mandel
The Telegraph Herald
DUBUQUE, Iowa — The Iowa Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of the city of Dubuque in dismissing a lawsuit by a Dubuque firefighter who alleged that he was being discriminated against after undergoing hip replacement surgery.
David Beaves appealed the Dubuque District Court’s decision, contending that a jury should decide whether the city perceived him as disabled based on his health condition and forced him to go through the disability retirement process.
Court documents state that Beaves began his firefighting career for the city in 1995 and developed right hip pain, which required a complete hip replacement surgery in 2008.
Records show Beaves was hesitant to give the department details of his surgery, fearing forced retirement.
After the surgery, Beaves was cleared by his doctors, but referred by the fire chief to the Municipal Fire and Police Retirement System of Iowa for an evaluation to determine if he could perform his duties.
He was found unfit to continue with his job by two doctors at the University of Iowa. That decision later was reversed by the full medical board.
Beaves has since been put back to work on a full-time basis.
The city argued that the fire chief asked its employee to go through a fitness test after a major surgery, which is not discrimination.
Beaves disagreed, saying the city unjustly perceived him as disabled and forced him into the disability retirement system.
The court of appeals on Wednesday upheld the district court’s ruling to dismiss on summary judgment by a 2-1 vote.
The court concluded that Beaves failed to present evidence that the city regarded him as disabled, “or believed he had a substantially limiting impairment that precluded him in the major life activity of working, within the statutory definitions.”
The ruling was filed April 27, and Beaves’ attorney, Michael J. Carroll, of Des Moines, plans to make a request for further review by the Iowa Supreme Court.
“This is a very narrow issue; it doesn’t happen to many people,” Carroll said. “It is a big deal to firefighters who are on the line, who want to make their own health care decisions. People who feel like they can work, and can demonstrate they can work, shouldn’t be forced into retirement. And that is what happened to Dave.”
City of Dubuque attorney Les Reddick said he hopes the city is finally finished with defending itself on this matter.
“The city has been through a number of different processes and has prevailed on all of them, so I would hope it would end at some point,” he said.
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