Sleepwalking Saleswoman Not Excused for Climbing into Co-worker’s Bed.
We remember the days of wild and raunchy behavior at national sales conferences – leading to challenging disciplinary calls with employment lawyers about what to do when the company had tolerated such a “wild west” environment at those meetings.
But we never heard the “sleepwalking” defense until a recent NextGen Healthcare Inc. case in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, where the terminated employee had barged into a co-worker’s hotel room at midnight and climbed into a bed. She did not respond to his requests that she leave, and the Human Resources Director, who was called to handle the situation for the startled co-worker, had trouble waking her.
NextGen fired the employee due to the incident and she then sued for disability discrimination based on her somnambulism (sleepwalking disorder). The court rejected the claim, finding that she was not fired because of her disability. Rather, she was fired “because of what happened when she sleepwalked” – entering a co-worker’s hotel room, climbing into his bed, and refusing to leave.
Is that fair? Certainly, the result is consistent with court cases addressing alcoholic employees who commit egregious misconduct at work when drunk. The Americans with Disabilities Act does not excuse such misconduct, even if the disability contributes to it.