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Mangano v. Verity (Cal. Ct. App. - Oct. 22, 2008)

By Shaun Martin

I agree with Justice Mihara that the defendant employer here was entitled to summary judgment in its favor, as well as an award of post-998 offer costs (but not attorney fees). So I have no complaints about the merits.

Still, I assume we can all agree that it's extremely unfortunate, albeit not tortious in the circumstances present here, that Thomas Mangano's supervisor (the CFO at Verity) repeatedly elected to call Mr. Mangano "Rainman" in front of everyone at the company -- and even gave him a plaque to that effect -- in light of the subsequent discovery that Mr. Mangano had Asperger's Syndrome. Yikes.

Fortunately, the offending party immediately stopped using this nickname once Mr. Mangano requested that he do so. Still. Maybe we can all learn the following lesson, if only as a matter of civility: Don't tease someone about a perceived disability that they may, in fact, have. Whether you (or they) know it or not. And whether the disability you're teasing them about is exactly the disability they have or merely something close.

Agreed? Good.

Full post as published by California Appellate Report on October 22, 2008 (boomark / email).