Judge Lawrence Kahn
Price began work at nonprofit Berkshire Farm Center and Services for Youth in June 2010. On Sept. 30, 2010, one of the youths at Berkshire attacked her with a fire extinguisher. Price was hospitalized for a week. Despite repeated notification of her purported need to seek additional medical care—and her physician’s repeatedly rebuffed attempts to contact Berkshire about her need of an accommodation for her medical condition—Berkshire fired Price on Oct. 6, 2010, as being a “No-Call, No-Show.” District court denied dismissal of Price’s Dec. 7, 2012, action under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) asserting claims for discriminatory termination and failure to accommodate. Although Price did not plead specific reasonable accommodations, Berkshire’s alleged failure to engage in the ADA-required interactive process may have prevented her from identifying specific reasonable accommodations. Further, Price’s complaint implicitly identified specific reasonable accommodations. By alleging that she was fired less than a week after her injury-caused absence began, Price plausibly alleged that Berkshire could have reasonably accommodated her disability by giving her a brief leave of absence.
