Employer must know of disability to be liable for disability discrimination
Without such employer knowledge, an employee cannot show that he was terminated because of his disability
By Dan Eaton PUBLISHED: June 1, 2026 at 6:00 AM PDT
A California employer cannot be liable for unlawful disability discrimination when it fires an employee for disturbing behavior the employee later attributes to a mental disability never previously disclosed to the employer and that was not the only possible explanation for the employee’s behavior. Without such employer knowledge, ruled the court of appeal recently in Husband v. Target Corporation, the employee cannot show he was terminated because of his disability.
Background
Daniel Husband worked for 20 months at a Burbank Target as a fulfillment expert without incident. One day, Husband became highly emotional and visibly upset, pointing fingersand yelling at a coworker. At Husband’s request, his supervisor, Daniel Abts, sent him home. Abts sent an email to his superiors, and a human resources supervisor, about Husband’s disturbing, uncharacteristic behavior. Abts expressed concern in his email about Husband’s mental state.
The next night, Husband arrived for his shift looking shaky and distraught and breathing heavily. Husband made bizarre statements to Abts about whether Husband had killed his stepmother by speaking a word and asked Abts and other employees whether he had killed anyone at the store, frightening other employees. Believing that “a hospital would be better than the police,” Abts sent Husband home with a recommendation that he “get examined by a doctor/psych professional.”
Abts sent an email detailing these events to the same higher-ups to whom he sent the email about the previous day’s events. The following day, store officials decided to terminate Husband’s employment for violation of Target’s workplace violence policy. Before his termination, Husband had not informed Target that he suffered from bipolar disorder and had not requested any accommodation for that disability.
Employee’s disability discrimination lawsuit
Husband sued Target for disability discrimination under California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), claiming his statements and conduct stemmed from his mental disability. He asserted additional claims that Target failed to provide a reasonable accommodation for his disability and failed to engage in the interactive process FEHA requires to determine whether the employee’s disability may be reasonably accommodated.
Click here to read the full article written by SCMV Shareholder Dan Eaton and published in The San Diego Union-Tribune.