EAST ST. LOUIS - Chester Mental Health Center admissions and discharge coordinator Angela Kongeal deserves trial on claims that her employers didn’t accommodate her disabilities, Chief U.S. District Judge Nancy Rosenstengel ruled on Feb. 12.
Rosenstengel found reasonable jurors could determine that Kongeal’s request for a standing desk fell on deaf ears at the state human services department for at least five months.
She found Kongeal requested the desk for chronic back pain and disc replacement.
She found the department offered no reason for the delay.
She added that the department might have simply made a mistake, but jurors could infer that the department exhibited bad faith.
Rosenstengel found a delay in accommodating a disability can amount to failure to accommodate it.
Next she found a genuine question of fact as to whether the department failed to modify Kongeal’s schedule once a month to accommodate lupus treatment in St. Louis.
On those days, Kongeal asked to work from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. instead of 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Rosenstengel found the department approved this once but gave Kongeal the runaround as to why they couldn’t do it again.
“The reasons for denial seemed to change each time,” she wrote.
Rosenstengel found another question of fact as to whether the department should have let Kongeal work at home for five weeks in 2020 due to her autoimmune disease.
She found she couldn’t say as a matter of law that the job necessitated attendance in person.
Kongeal asserted she routinely worked remotely from her encrypted cell phone.
Rosenstengel found the job description detailed Kongeal’s coordination with courts and attorneys, which entailed communication by phone, email, and other remote methods.
“The record also indicates that onsite meetings often had a WebEx component,” she wrote.
Kongeal sued the department in 2021 as Angela Cowell, claiming the department violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Americans with Disabilities Act.
She also sued hospital administrator Travis Nottmeier, human resources director Jessica Lawson and social work director Jamia Klausing, alleging intentional infliction of distress.
She claimed all defendants interfered with benefits under the Family and Medical Leave Act.
All defendants moved for summary judgment, and Rosenstengel granted it to Nottmeier, Lawson and Klausing.
She granted it to the department on benefits and civil rights but not on disability.
Rosenstengel set a status conference for Feb. 27.
Shari Rhode of Carbondale represents Kongeal.
Assistant attorney general Tara Bennett of Belleville represents the department.