Middle Township, Former EMT Settle Lawsuit over Accommodation Refusal

COURT HOUSE – A former emergency medical technician (EMT), who claimed she was fired after Middle Township refused to make accommodations for her work-related back injury, has received a $47,500 settlement, according to papers filed in the Superior Court of New Jersey Civil Law Division. 
Ann Marie Camp claimed in her lawsuit that she suffered a back injury April 9, 2015, while lifting a patient who was suffering a cardiac emergency.
Camp was hired as an EMT in January 1992 and had been promoted to senior EMT. In her lawsuit filed Feb. 22, 2016, she claimed she was discriminated against on the basis of her disability, and that the township failed to “reasonably accommodate a disability” and “retaliated.”
The settlement was agreed to by both parties Aug. 22, 2016, with no admission of liability by either party. Camp’s claims were not adjudicated by any court, the agreement stipulated.
Daniel Kurkowski of Kurkowski Law, LLC, Cape May, represented Camp. James Birchmeier of Birchmeier & Power, LLC, Tuckahoe, represented Middle Township. Efforts to reach both attorneys were unsuccessful.
According to the lawsuit, Camp claimed a “history of lumbar spine injuries which required surgery.” After injuring herself April 9, 2015, she received a two-day medical leave of absence from a doctor at a local urgent care center. That was extended for another three days after a second evaluation two days later.
She returned to work “in a modified capacity” for three days after another medical evaluation April 14, 2015, and “performed sedentary work,” according to the lawsuit.
Another re-evaluation took place April 17 and doctors released her for another seven days of modified capacity where she “performed sedentary work.”
On April 24, 2015, the lawsuit claims Camp was released for modified work and ordered to have an MRI by physicians at the urgent care center.
She was contacted by the municipality’s workers compensation insurance firm and ordered to see a neurosurgeon before the MRI would be approved. She saw a neurosurgeon on May 5, 2015, who ordered the MRI and released her for “light duty capacity,” according to the lawsuit.
The MRI May 9, 2015, showed “bulges in the lumbar spine together with radiculopathy,” according to the lawsuit. Radiculopathy is a disease of the root of the nerve, such as from a pinched nerve or tumor.
Six days later, the neurosurgeon ordered Camp to undergo physical therapy and pain management, according to the lawsuit. However, the suit noted that the pain management doctor did not believe pain management was the right treatment, so she was referred back to the neurosurgeon.
Camp began physical therapy at a rehabilitation center May 27, 2015, and was re-evaluated by the neurosurgeon June 10, 2015, according to the claims.
At that time, a “functional capacity exam” was ordered by the municipality for July 29, 2015, with a consultant.
Camp claims in her suit that she never received a copy of the report from the functional capacity exam. On Aug. 10, 2015, the neurosurgeon released her to return to work “in a medium-duty capacity” where she worked until Aug. 18, 2015.
At that time, Camp said she was terminated from her job by Vera Kalish, township human resources director.
In her suit, Camp said she “pled for her job, requested another department, and offered to work in any available position, even if it meant less pay.”
She was told there were “no other positions available and that option was not open for discussion,” according to the lawsuit.
“Despite clear medical order and opinion” that she could “perform duties with restrictions,” the lawsuit claims the township “refused to accommodate” her.
It “refused to make the facilities accessible and usable, restructure her job, to get or modify equipment or devices to do her job, and refused to transfer her to another open position which she qualified.”
No prior work performance issues had been noted, the lawsuit stated.
To contact Karen Knight, email kknight@cmcherald.com.