A federal appellate court has upheld a win for medical diagnostic company Medtronic Inc. in a lawsuit brought under the Americans with Disabilities Act by an employee who claimed he was fired because of his weight.

In Tuesday’s ruling, however, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit punted on the question of whether morbid obesity is itself an “impairment” under the ADA by finding that the plaintiff, former Medtronic facility maintenance technician Jose Valtierra, couldn’t establish that his weight was the cause of his dismissal from the company.