Discrimination Allegations In Health Care To Deaf Woman.

Both husband and wife communicated through American Sign Language. The wife first went to a medical clinic in Nevada in 2007 and was told no sign language interpreter would be provided to interpret her communications with health care personnel. Each time she went to the clinic, she requested and was denied an interpreter. In late 2009, the wife died. The husband filed a discrimination action against the clinic and the doctor on September 1, 2010, alleging violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 [42 U.S.C. § 12101] and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act [29 U.S.C. § 794], as well as NIED and IIED under Nevada law. The federal trial judge granted summary judgment on the statute of limitations issue. The Ninth Circuit reversed, stating: “Because each and every discrete discriminatory act causes a new claim to accrue under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, any discriminatory acts that [the clinic and the doctor] took after September 1, 2008 are actionable. All prior discrete discriminatory acts, however, are untimely filed and no longer actionable.”  (Ervine v. Desert View  (Ninth Cir.; May 29, 2014) (Case No. 12-15059) 29 Am. Disabilities Cas. (BNA) 1513.)