HARTFORD, Conn. (LN) — A federal judge in Connecticut on Monday refused to dismiss the disability-discrimination claim of Jerry Boggs, a former Avelo Airlines manager who says the low-cost carrier eliminated his position less than two weeks after he was hospitalized for symptoms of a stroke, while tossing his failure-to-accommodate and retaliation claims for want of a plausible accommodation request.
Boggs joined Avelo on February 28, 2023, as Manager of Business Development, responsible for executing localized partnership strategies and driving customer conversion. Trouble began almost immediately: in April 2023, his manager, Travis Christ, Avelo's Head of Marketing, reprimanded him for taking a half-day to attend a doctor's appointment, telling him he had not been working there long enough to take days off.
The case turned on events in June 2023. Boggs had work travel scheduled from June 12 through June 14 when he sought emergency treatment for intermittent tingling and numbness in the left side of his face and his left hand. After being admitted to the hospital, he called Christ to report he was being hospitalized for symptoms of having a stroke and could not travel as planned. Following a four-day hospital stay, he immediately returned to work on June 15, 2023.
On June 27, 2023, Christ informed Boggs by video-conference call that Avelo was eliminating his position.
U.S. District Judge Vernon D. Oliver declined to dismiss the discrimination claim, finding Boggs had alleged enough at the pleadings stage. Boggs alleged not only that he suffered a heart attack resulting in heart damage and heart disease, but that his conditions substantially limited his ability to work. Oliver noted that there is a "possibility that a temporary injury can constitute a qualifying disability" and that ADA claims cannot be dismissed "simply because the injury causing these limitations was temporary," quoting the Second Circuit's 2021 decision in Hamilton v. Westchester County.
The failure-to-accommodate claim was a different story. Oliver agreed with Avelo that Boggs pleaded the claim in a "wholly conclusory manner without specifying the accommodation that was requested upon his return to work." The only accommodation identified in the complaint was the four-day emergency hospital stay itself — and Avelo was notified of that absence only after Boggs was already hospitalized, giving the airline no opportunity to grant or deny a request. Oliver flagged that the Second Circuit has not resolved whether paid or unpaid leave can constitute a reasonable accommodation under the ADA, but said the question need not be answered here because the pleading failed regardless.
The retaliation claim fell for the same reason. Because Boggs never plausibly alleged a request for accommodation or any other protected activity — his call to Christ reporting his hospitalization was, in Oliver's assessment, entirely unilateral and therefore could not constitute a request to his employer — there was no protected act to anchor a retaliation theory.
Boggs's disability-discrimination claim now heads toward discovery, with Avelo still facing the central allegation that it eliminated his position because of his medical condition.