The Seventh Circuit held that the District Court did not err in granting the employer’s motion for summary judgment. In the underlying Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) action, the plaintiff alleged that her employer fired her because of her multiple sclerosis condition, after the employer denied her request for a 30-day unpaid leave to address complications of her condition. The record showed that the employe had exhausted her leave under the employer's attendance policy and had failed to qualify for requested leave under said policy.
The Court noted that the employer need not accommodate the employee’s unreliable attendance, and the employee failed to show that she would have been able to come into work on regular basis even if the employer had granted her leave request.
While the employer failed to engage in the required interactive accommodation process, the result was the same, since said failure did not constitute an independent basis for liability under ADA, and the plaintiff was unable to show that she could perform essential function of her job by regularly coming into work.