Micari v. Trans World Airlines, Inc.

**What Happened** Frank Micari worked as a mechanic for Trans World Airlines (TWA) until he was terminated. Micari had a disability and claimed that TWA discriminated against him, failed to provide reasonable accommodations for his condition, and wrongfully fired him. He sued the airline under disability discrimination laws. **What the Court Decided** The court ruled in favor of TWA and dismissed Micari's case entirely. The main reason was that Micari had previously told the Social Security Administration he was completely unable to work in order to receive disability benefits. The court said he couldn't then turn around and claim in his lawsuit that he could actually perform his job with accommodations. This legal principle is called "judicial estoppel" - essentially, you can't make contradictory statements in different legal proceedings. **Why This Matters for Workers** This case shows workers need to be very careful about consistency when dealing with both Social Security disability claims and workplace discrimination cases. If you tell Social Security you cannot work at all, it may hurt your ability to later argue that your employer should have accommodated your disability. Workers should consider how statements made to different agencies might conflict with each other.