Facts

Plaintiff Ramon Olvera, age 48, worked for defendant Quest Diagnostics as a route service representative, transporting blood, tissue and other biological samples for sixteen years. Plaintiff's supervisor defendant Pablo Bartelli allegedly told plaintiff that he was "cleaning up" the workplace to save the company money. After plaintiff received several written performance warnings, he was terminated on August 22, 2017 for misplacing and mishandling a patient specimen in violation of company policy. The decision to terminate plaintiff was made by his supervisors and approved by Quest's internal personnel before Plaintiff was involved in an auto accident that Plaintiff alleged rendered him disabled. After Olvera was terminated, he sued defendants for age and disability discrimination.

PLAINTIFF'S CONTENTIONS: Plaintiff contended that he was discriminated against based on his age, and that his supervisors harassed and discriminated against plaintiff for his disability and failed to provide him with reasonable accommodations for his disability. Plaintiff also contended that his termination was a breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing and a breach of an implied-in-fact contract. Finally, plaintiff contended his termination violated public policy.

DEFENDANT'S CONTENTIONS: Defendant contended that no issue of material fact existed as to plaintiff's claims for age and disability discrimination. Specifically, defendant contended that it had multiple legitimate grounds for terminating plaintiff, including his prior performance warnings and his ongoing performance issues that violated company policy, and that plaintiff failed to submit any evidence demonstrating that such reasons were pretextual. Defendant also contended that plaintiff's claims for reasonable accommodation failed because defendant provided all the accommodations that he had requested following his auto accident. With respect to the breach of contract claims, defendant contended that no implied contract existed because plaintiff was at-will employee who did not have an employment agreement and that, even if there was an implied contract, it was not breached because defendant fully complied with its policies in terminating plaintiff for his ongoing performance deficiencies.

Result

The district court granted defendant Quest Diagnostics' motion for summary judgment on all causes of action finding that no material issues of fact existed for trial pursuant to F.R.C.P. 56.