Yes. If your employer grants a disability accommodation and you think its terms will not work, you need to tell your employer and ask to change it. Here the Appeals Court upheld summary judgment for an employer on a failure to accommodate claim and a retaliation claim under G.L. c. 151B, partly because the employee never raised his concerns until he sued. This is an unpublished Appeals Court decision under Rule 23.0, which courts may cite as persuasive but not as binding precedent.
What happened
The employee was a captain in a public authority’s maritime security department. He had approved intermittent medical leave for a medical condition. After an investigation prompted by a subordinate’s complaint, he was suspended for three days and moved to the overnight shift. He then asked for an accommodation so he could leave his post if his condition flared up. Human resources replied by email that he could leave right away after notifying the officers on his shift and his chiefs, and he thanked them without raising any concern. Months later, after video showed him eating with the same subordinate, which the employer said broke its COVID-19 masking and distancing rules, and flicking the subordinate’s hair, he was fired.
What the court decided
The Appeals Court affirmed in Puopolo v. Massachusetts Port Authority, No. 24-P-855 (Mass. App. Ct. November 25, 2025) (Rule 23.0 decision).
Summary judgment. Summary judgment is generally disfavored in discrimination cases because intent is usually a question of fact. But it can be proper when the employee cannot make out the basic elements of a claim. Godfrey v. Globe Newspaper Co., 457 Mass. 113 (2010).
Failure to accommodate. Chapter 151B, § 4 (16), bars employers from discriminating against a qualified employee with a disability who can do the essential functions of the job with a reasonable accommodation. The employee argued that the accommodation required him to wait until a supervisor confirmed coverage before leaving, which was unworkable at night. The court read the email differently. It said he could leave right away and without delay. No reasonable reading supported a hidden condition that he wait.
Even if the email were unclear, the court held his silence was fatal. A request for accommodation starts a back and forth process between employer and employee. An employer that refuses to take part in that process violates the law. Ocean Spray Cranberries, Inc. v. Massachusetts Comm’n Against Discrimination, 441 Mass. 632 (2004). But the process is a dialogue. If the employee believed the terms were not enough, he had to say so. He did not raise his reading of the email until after he sued, so the employer never had the chance to adjust.
Retaliation. The employee argued that his firing came soon after he asked to renew his leave, so it must have been retaliation. Chapter 151B, § 4, bars retaliation for protected activity. Timing alone can support an inference of retaliation when a satisfactorily performing employee is punished right after the employer learns of the protected activity. Mole v. University of Mass., 442 Mass. 582 (2004). But the employee had already been investigated, reprimanded and suspended before the renewal request, and the firing rested partly on those earlier problems. His first leave request was more than a year before the firing, and as more time passes, the inference weakens. The mere fact that one event followed another does not prove a causal link. MacCormack v. Boston Edison Co., 423 Mass. 652 (1996). With no other evidence of hostility toward his accommodation, the claim failed.
What this means for you
The employer won, and the lesson is practical. If you get an accommodation and the details do not work for you, say so in writing, right away. Do not quietly accept terms you think are unworkable and plan to challenge them later. Courts expect both sides to take part in the interactive process.
On retaliation, timing helps most when your record is clean. If you were already under discipline before your request, you will usually need more than timing, such as comments, unequal treatment, or a pattern of hostility tied to your disability or your request.
What to do now
- Make accommodation requests in writing and keep copies of every reply.
- If an offered accommodation is unclear or will not work, respond in writing, explain why, and propose an alternative.
- Keep notes of any comments or actions that suggest your employer resents your accommodation or leave.
- If you are disciplined or fired after a request, write down the timeline while it is fresh.
- Talk to a lawyer promptly. Deadlines for filing with the MCAD are short.
If this is your situation, call Doubleday Law at (617) 575-2006 or tell us what happened. Deadlines for discrimination and employment claims can be short.
