SCOTT D. BURGESS v. YOUR HOUSE OF RALEIGH, INC.
Case Details
- Citation
- 326 N.C. 205
- Procedural Posture — the stage the case had reached
- motion to dismiss
- State
- North Carolina
- Circuit
- 4th Circuit
Related Laws
No specific laws identified for this ruling.
Claim Types
Outcome
The North Carolina Supreme Court affirmed the trial court's dismissal of plaintiff's employment discrimination claim under the state Handicapped Persons Act, holding that asymptomatic HIV infection does not constitute a handicap under the statute and that communicable diseases are explicitly exempted from protection.
Excerpt
SCOTT D. BURGESS v. YOUR HOUSE OF RALEIGH, INC. No. 235PA89 (Filed 7 February 1990) 1. Rules of Civil Procedure § 12 (NCI3d)— motion to dismiss-failure to state claim for relief A complaint may be dismissed pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) if no law exists to support the claim made, if sufficient facts to make out a good claim are absent, or if facts are disclosed which will necessarily defeat the claim. Am Jur 2d, Pleading § 226. 2. Statutes § 5.1 |NCI3d)— statutory construction — intent of legislature Where the language of a statute is clear and unambiguous, there is no room for judicial construction and the courts must construe the statute using its plain meaning. But where a statute is ambiguous, judicial construction must be used to ascertain the legislative will. Am Jur 2d, Statutes §§ 145, 146, 194, 195. 3. Master and Servant § 7.5 (NCI3d)— Handicapped Persons Act —inapplicability to person infected with AIDS virus A person who is infected with the AIDS virus (HIV), but who is otherwise asymptomatic, is not entitled to employment protection under the provisions of the N. C. Handicapped Persons Act because (1) a person infected with HIV is not a “handicapped person” within the meaning of the Act in that he does not have a physical or mental impairment which limits a “major life activity” as that term is defined by N.C.G.S. § 168A-3(4), nor is he regarded as having such an impairment; (2) the legislature did not intend that the definition of “handicapped person” would include a person solely because he suffers from a communicable disease since such an interpretation would render meaningless the communicable disease exemption of N.C.G.S. § 168A-5(b)(3); and (3) subsequent legislative history indicates that the legislature did not intend to cover the subject of communicable diseases such as HIV when it enacted the Handicapped Persons Act. Am Jur 2d, Job Discrimination § 124. On discretionary review pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 7A-31(a) prior to a determination by the Court of Appeals of an order entered by Herring, J., at the 27 November 1988 Session of Superior Court, WAKE County, which granted defendant’s motion for dismissal pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 1A-1, Rule 12(b)(6) of the North Carolina Rules of Civil Procedure. Heard in the Supreme Court 13 November 1989. Erdman, Boggs & Harkins, by Harry H. Harkins, Jr., and Crisp, Davis, Schwentker, Page & Currin, by Lynn Fontana, for plaintiff-appellant. Patterson, Dilthey, Clay, Cranfill, Sumner & Hartzog, by Richard T. Boyette, and Moore & Van Allen, by William D. Dannelly, for defendant-appellee. Tharrington, Smith & Hargrove, by Burton Craige, for North Carolina Civil Liberties Union Legal Foundation; and Smith, Anderson, Blount, Dorsett, Mitchell & Jernigan, by Julian D. Bobbitt, Jr. and Maureen Kelley O’Connor, for North Carolina Medical Society and American Medical Association, amici curiae. MEYER, Justice. We note from the outset that the issues raised in this case would, if the action had been commenced after the effective date of recent amendments to the North Carolina Communicable Disease Act, N.C.G.S. § 130A-148(h)-(j) (1989), be decided under that act. These provisions, which establish protections for those persons who test positive for the HIV virus, became effective 1 October 1989, subsequent to the filing of plaintiffs complaint and to entry of the order of the trial court granting defendant’s motion for dismissal. Thus, for purposes of this appeal, plaintiff’s rights must be determined under the law as it existed prior to the passage of the recent amendments to the Communicable Disease Act. Plaintiff was employed by defendant restaurant as a short-order cook. In November 1987, plaintiff tested positive for the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), which is the agent currently recognized to be responsible for the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). This condition is referred to as being “seropositive” for the virus. Upon learning that plaintiff had tested positive for this virus, defendant discharged plaintiff from employment. It is undisputed that plaintiff was fired solely because he tested positive for HIV. Plaintiff brought suit against his former employer, alleging that his discharge from employment for this reason constituted a discriminatory practice under the provisions of the North Carolina Handicapped Persons Protection Act, N.C.G.S. § 168A-1 to -12 (1987) (Handicapped Persons Act), because plaintiff’s seropositive status enabled him to fit the act’s definition of a qualified handicapped person. In his prayer for relief, plaintiff sought injunctive relief, reinstatement to his former position, back pay, and attorney’s fees. Defendant answered, denying plaintiff’s assertion that infection with HIV constitutes a “handicap,” and further moved to dismiss plaintiff’s complaint under Rule 12(b)(6) of the North Carolina Rules of Civil Procedure for failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. The trial court granted defendant’s motion, and plaintiff appealed to the Court of Appeals. On 8 June 1989, this Court ex mero motu allowed discretionary review prior to determination by the Court of Appeals. AIDS may be described as the final stage of complications of infection by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus. Once introduced into the body, the HIV virus attacks and changes the structure of white blood cells which are crucial in order for a person’s immune system to fight off disease. Leonard, AIDS and Employment Law Revisited, 14 Hofstra L. Rev. 11, 17-18 (1985). Soon after infection, antibodies to the virus develop. The infected white blood cells, unable to perform their normal immune system functions, reduce the body’s capability to fight off opportunistic disease or render it ixicapable of doing so. Id. The debilitating effects of AIDS come, not from the virus itself, but from these opportunistic diseases that the immune system cannot fight. The HIV virus is known to be transmitted through blood or semen during sexual intercourse, by contaminated intravenous needles, by the transfusion of tainted blood, and through prenatal exposure. As of April 1989, more than 94,000 cases of AIDS had been reported in the United States, and of that number, 820 had been reported in North Carolina. U.S. Centers for Disease Control, HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report (May 1989). The United States Centers for Disease Control estimates that the number of new cases in 1991 alone will exceed 52,000, and it projects a cumulative total of 270,000 cases by the year 1991. Padraig O’Malley, The AIDS Epidemic: Private Rights and the Public Interest (1989). AIDS has presented a myriad of legal issues, particularly in the employment context. Much debate has focused on the threshold question of whether AIDS or infection with the HIV virus should be defined as a handicap under either state or federal handicap antidiscrimination statutes. “One of the medical facts which makes AIDS a significant workplace issue is that a person may experience HIV infection in its various stages and be virtually asymptomatic, or have symptoms which . . . are not actually disabling.” Leonard, AIDS and Employment Law Revisited, 14 Hofstra L. Rev. 11, 19 (1985). The central issue before this Court is whether a person who is infected with HIV, but who is otherwise asymptomatic, is entitled to protection under the provisions of the North Carolina Handicapped Persons Act, and specifically whether plaintiff has stated a claim upon which relief can be granted under the act. In ruling upon a Rule 12(b)(6) motion, the trial judge must treat the allegations of the complaint as admitted. Stanback v. Stanback, 297 N.C. 181, 254 S.E.2d 611 (1979). Plaintiff’s complaint therefore stated a proper cause of action under the act unless the court could hold, as a matter of law, that his seropositive status did not constitute a handicap as contemplated by the statute. A complaint may be dismissed pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) if no law exists to support the claim made, if sufficient facts to make out a good claim are absent, or if facts are disclosed which will necessarily defeat the claim. Forbis v. Honeycutt, 301 N.C. 699, 273 S.E.2d 240 (1981). In order to determine whether plaintiff has alleged a good claim, we must interpret the provisions of the Handicapped Persons Act. Where the language of a statute is clear and unambiguous, there is no room for judicial construction and the courts must construe the statute using its plain meaning. Utilities Comm. v. Edmisten, Atty. General, 291 N.C. 451, 232 S.E.2d 184 (1977). But where a statute is ambiguous, judicial construction must be used to ascertain the legislative will. Young v. Whitehall Co., 229 N.C. 360, 49 S.E.2d 797 (1948). The primary rule of construction of a statute is to ascertain the intent of the legislature and to carry out such intention to the fullest extent. Buck v. Guaranty Co., 265 N.C. 285, 144 S.E.2d 34 (1965). This intent “must be found from the language of the act, its legislative history and the circumstances surrounding its adoption which throw light upon the evil sought to be remedied.” Milk Commission v. Food Stores, 270 N.C. 323, 332, 154 S.E.2d 548, 555 (1967). Upon careful and thorough analysis of the Handicapped Persons Act, we conclude that both the plain language of its provisions and the legislative history surrounding it indicate that the legislature did not intend to protect persons infected with HIV under this particular act. For many decades, North Carolina has adhered to the employment-at-will doctrine, which provides that “[w]here a contract of employment does not fix a definite term, it is terminable at the will of either party, with or without cause.” Smith v. Ford Motor Co., 289 N.C. 71, 80, 221 S.E.2d 282, 288 (1976) (citing Still v. Lance, 279 N.C. 254, 182 S.E.2d 403 (1971)). This doctrine has recently been narrowly eroded by statutory and public policy limitations on its scope. See, e.g., Coman v. Thomas Manufacturing Co., 325 N.C. 172, 381 S.E.2d 445 (1989); Sides v. Duke University, 74 N.C. App. 331, 328 S.E.2d 818, disc. rev. denied, 314 N.C. 331, 333 S.E.2d 490 (1985). The North Carolina Handicapped Persons Act is a statutory enactment intended to protect handicapped employees from discriminatory employment practices. In the act’s statement of purpose, the legislature provides that: The purpose of this Chapter is to encourage and enable all handicapped people to participate fully to the maximum extent of their abilities in the social and economic life of the State, to engage in remunerative employment, to use available public accommodations and public services, and to otherwise pursue their rights and privileges as inhabitants of this State. N.C.G.S. § 168A-2(a) (1987). We recognize that the Handicapped Persons Act is a remedial statute. Burgess v. Brewing Co., 298 N.C. 520, 259 S.E.2d 248 (1979). Nevertheless, our interpretation of this act must be responsive to two countervailing considerations — the desire to give effect to the statutory objectives and the need to keep the scope of the act within the boundaries intended by the General Assembly. In order to state a cause of action for violation of the right to employment protected by the act, plaintiff must initially establish that he is a “handicapped person” whose rights are protected by the statute. The Handicapped Persons Act defines a “handicapped person” as one who (1) has a physical or mental impairment which limits one or more “major life activities,” (2) has a record of such an impairment, or (3) is regarded as having such an impairment. N.C.G.S. § 168A-3(4) (1987). In order to receive employment protection under the act, a person must additionally fit the definition of a “qualified handicapped person”: With regard to employment, a handicapped person who can satisfactorily perform the duties of the job in question, with or without reasonable accommodation, . . . provided that the handicapping condition does not create an unreasonable risk to the safety or health of the handicapped person, other employees, the employer’s customers, or the public[.] N.C.G.S. § 168A-3(9)(a) (1987). Plaintiff contends that he has alleged facts sufficient to show that he qualifies not only as a “handicapped person” under the act, but also as a “qualified handicapped person” because his HIV infection does not pose a risk to others in the workplace setting. For the reasons set out below, we hold that plaintiff has failed to show that infection with HIV entitles him to protection as a “handicapped person” as that term is defined by the act. Since plaintiff cannot make this threshold showing, we need not examine the additional issue of whether plaintiff is a “qualified handicapped person” as defined by the act. We further hold that because plaintiff’s alleged handicap is a communicable disease, he is not protected under the Handicapped Persons Act because the act contains a provision exempting communicable diseases from protection as handicaps. Plaintiff asserts that, in interpreting the provisions of our act, we may utilize decisions of other state courts construing similar antidiscrimination statutes which have been enacted in other jurisdictions. To date, forty-seven states and the District of Columbia have enacted statutes prohibiting employment discrimination on the basis of disability or handicap. New of these statutes have specifically addressed whether HIV, or communicable diseases in general, are to be included within the definition of “handicap,” but plaintiff asserts that the trend among courts construing these acts has been to grant protection to persons infected with HIV. See, e.g., Raytheon Co. v. Fair Emp. & Housing Com’n., 261 Cal. Rptr. 197, 212 Cal. App. 3d 1242 (1989); Cronan v. New England Tel. & Tel. Co., 41 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) at 1273 (Sup. Ct. Mass. 1986). We have examined the various statutes and have discovered that there is little uniformity among them and minimal case law interpreting their scope. See Parry, AIDS as a Handicapping Condition — Part II, 10 Mental & Physical Disability L. Rep. 2, 4 (1986). Because of this lack of uniformity and because of differences we have discerned in their wording and purpose as compared to the North Carolina act, we conclude that case law from other jurisdictions is of little value to us in our interpretation of the North Carolina act. Plaintiff also requests that we utilize and follow judicial interpretations of the North Carolina act’s federal counterpart, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 29 U.S.C. 794, in construing the provisions of the North Carolina act. We concede that the definitions of “handicapped person” and “qualified handicapped person” in the North Carolina Handicapped Persons Act are virtually identical to the definitional provisions of the federal act and that, in fact, the North Carolina act was patterned after the federal act. Because of these similarities, plaintiff requests that we rely upon cases construing the federal act that tend to support his point of view, that is, that communicable diseases such as AIDS and its related conditions are handicaps, and consequently to decide this case in his favor. See School Bd. of Nassau County v. Arline, 480 U.S. 273, 94 L. Ed. 2d 307, reh’g denied, 481 U.S. 1024, 95 L. Ed. 2d 519 (1987) (schoolteacher suffering from a communicable disease — tuberculosis — held to be protected under federal act). However, in construing the intent of our legislature in enacting the North Carolina Handicapped Persons Act, it is important to note that two significant provisions distinguish our state act from the federal act. First, the North Carolina act has a more restrictive definition of a “handicapped person” in that it defines “major life activities” more narrowly than the federal act defines the term. Second, North Carolina’s act contains a communicable disease exemption which is absent from the federal act. These differences lead us to conclude that case law construing the provisions of the federal Rehabilitation Act cannot guide us in our interpretation of the North Carolina act. The first distinguishing characteristic is the difference in the federal act and the North Carolina act in defining the term “major life activities.” As we stated above, both acts define a “handicapped person” as a person who (1) has a physical or mental impairment which limits one or more “major life activities,” (2) has a record of such an impairment, or (3) is regarded as having such an impairment. N.C.G.S. § 168A-3(4) (1987). Major life activities are defined in N.C.G.S. § 168A-3(4)(b) as “functions such as caring for one’s self, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, and learning.” As an initial matter, we note that the parties are in agreement that plaintiff has a physical impairment in that he has a viral infection that affects his hemic and lymphatic systems. Defendant disagrees, however, with plaintiff’s assertion that he has, or is regarded as having, a physical impairment which limits a “major life activity.” Plaintiff contends that his ability to work has been impaired by the fact that he was not permitted to continue his employment with defendant after it was determined that he was infected with HIV, and that he therefore fits within the definition of a “handicapped person” because he is regarded as having an impairment that limits a major life activity, “working.” Plaintiff claims that the negative perception of others renders him a “handicapped person” within the meaning of the act. He concludes that this Court should incorporate the term “working” into the North Carolina act’s definition of “major life activities” because, by its terms, the list of functions is illustrative rather than exhaustive. We note that the federal act, unlike the North Carolina act, does indeed list “working” as one of the major life activities that may be found to have been limited by a physical or mental impairment. However, the drafters of the North Carolina act specifically removed the term “working” from the senate bill as originally enacted. See S. 272, Committee Substitute (adopted 30 May 1985). The specific exclusion of “working” from this list is significant because it is the only activity listed by the federal act that was not included in our state act. As this Court has recognized, “by modifying the language borrowed from [a] federal act, the North Carolina legislature must have intended to alter its meaning to some extent.” Edmisten, Attorney General v. Penney Co., 292 N.C. 311, 316, 233 S.E.2d 895, 898 (1977). The deletion of the term “working” is some indication that the General Assembly intended for the Handicapped Persons Act to be more narrow in scope than its federal counterpart. Plaintiff concedes that his ability to perform his usual work at the defendant restaurant is not actually impaired by his HIV infection. He is in fact asymptomatic. As an asymptomatic carrier of HIV, plaintiff has failed to show that he has any condition that would substantially limit his ability to perform any of the physical or mental tasks listed in the Handicapped Persons Act as major life activities. Plaintiff additionally argues that infection with HIV is a physical impairment which limits other activities which he contends are “major life activities” — his ability to bear a healthy child and his ability to engage in sexual relationships for fear of transmitting the virus. Because he has a physical impairment which limits one or more “major life activities,” plaintiff argues, he qualifies under the Handicapped Persons Act’s first definition of a “handicapped person,” as set out above. We disagree with plaintiff’s assertion that these limitations fall within the scope of the act’s definition of “major life activities.” The activities plaintiff enumerates are not of the same nature as those listed in the statute, that is, essential tasks one must perform on a regular basis in or
Similar Rulings
Browse Related
Facing something similar at work?
Court rulings like this one are useful, but every situation is different. Take 2 minutes to see which laws may protect you — it's free, private, and no account is required to start.
This ruling information is sourced from public court records via CourtListener.com. Case outcomes, claim types, and summaries are extracted using AI analysis and may be incomplete or inaccurate. It is provided for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.
See something wrong, or named in this ruling and want it corrected or redacted? Request a correction.