Lois Sharer v. State of Oregon

I. Background

Sharer was employed as a legal assistant for the OPDS and its predecessor agency, the Oregon Public Defender Office, from 1999 until May 2003. She alleged that she was a dis- abled individual with post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety disorder, depression and agoraphobia. Sharer claimed that defendants State of Oregon and two of her supervisors, Peter Ozanne and Peter Gartlan, failed to provide her with reason- able accommodation, terminated her because of an actual or perceived disability and terminated her for asserting her feder- ally protected rights to be free from discrimination on the basis of disability. She alleged violations of section 504 and the FMLA, as well as other claims not at issue on this appeal. The district court granted defendants’ motion for summary judgment on Sharer’s section 504 claim, concluding that she failed to meet her burden of establishing that OPDS was a “program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” The court also granted summary judgment on her FMLA claim. Sharer appealed.

II. Section 504

[1] Section 504 provides that “[n]o otherwise qualified individual with a disability . . . shall, solely by reason of…