Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Elise Russell v. Cooley Dickinson Hospital, Inc., & another
August 8, 2002437 Mass. 443
Summary
The court held that receiving workers’ compensation benefits for temporary total disability does not automatically estop an employee from claiming that she is a qualified handicapped person under Massachusetts employment-discrimination law. Nevertheless, summary judgment was proper because the plaintiff had no reasonable expectation of proving that the hospital failed to provide a reasonable accommodation, and her other statutory and tort claims also failed. The court affirmed the judgments for the defendants.