JONES v. SAINT JOSEPH COLLEGE (2007)

Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Rosalyn Richter, J.), entered September 26, 2006, which, in an action for employment discrimination due to a disability, granted defendant's motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint, unanimously affirmed, without costs.

Plaintiff, the sole, full-time corporate recruiter for defendant college, was terminated after injuries she sustained in a car accident rendered her unable to make recruiting trips to Staten Island.   Dismissal of the complaint, which alleges violations of the New York State Human Rights Law (see Executive Law § 292[21];  § 296[1][a] ), and the New York City Human Rights Law (see Administrative Code of the City of New York § 8-107[1][a] ), was appropriate where the record evidence established that recruiting trips to Staten Island were an essential function of plaintiff's position (see Simeone v. County of Suffolk, 36 A.D.3d 890, 828 N.Y.S.2d 560 [2007];  Pimentel v. Citibank, N.A., 29 A.D.3d 141, 811 N.Y.S.2d 381 [2006], lv. denied 7 N.Y.3d 707, 821 N.Y.S.2d 813, 854 N.E.2d 1277 [2006] ), and plaintiff's proposed accommodation of assigning Staten Island recruiting trips to other employees was unreasonable (see Pembroke v. New York State Office of Court Admin., 306 A.D.2d 185, 761 N.Y.S.2d 214 [2003] ).

We have considered plaintiff's remaining contentions, including that defendants' motivation for terminating her employment was based on animus, and find them unavailing.