UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT

┐ KELLY BLANCHET, │ Plaintiff-Appellant, │ > No. 21-5073 │ v. │ │ CHARTER COMMUNICATIONS, LLC, │ Defendant-Appellee. │ │ ┘ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky at Covington. No. 2:18-cv-00188—William O. Bertelsman, District Judge.

Decided and Filed: March 8, 2022

Before: MOORE, KETHLEDGE, and DONALD, Circuit Judges.

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COUNSEL ON BRIEF: Robert F. Croskery, CROSKERY LAW OFFICES, Cincinnati, Ohio, for Appellant. C. Celeste Creswell, KABAT CHAPMAN & OZMER LLP, Atlanta, Georgia, for Appellee.

DONALD, J., delivered the opinion of the court in which MOORE, J., joined. KETHLEDGE, J. (pg. 13), delivered a separate dissenting opinion. _________________

OPINION _________________

BERNICE BOUIE DONALD, Circuit Judge. Plaintiff-Appellant Kelly Blanchet appeals the district court’s order granting summary judgment in favor of Defendant-Appellee No. 21-5073 Blanchet v. Charter Comm’ns, LLC Page 2

Charter Communications for her claims under the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”). We REVERSE and REMAND to the district court for further proceedings.

I.

In July of 2014, Charter Communications hired Kelly Blanchet as a Direct Sales Representative (“DSR”). As a DSR, Blanchet was responsible for selling Charter’s services door-to-door in residential neighborhoods. Blanchet quickly excelled in her role, receiving positive feedback from her closest supervisors. For example, her long-time supervisor, Ryan Quigley, identified her as “one of [his] top producers.” Quigley added that she “always was at work on time” and that he could “always depend on her being where she should be.” Another supervisor, Jayson Docter, stated that Blanchet was “probably the top person on [his] team every month.”

During Blanchet’s employment, she became pregnant and requested maternity leave. She applied for and received Charter’s standard maternity leave, short-term disability benefits, and Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) benefits until September 4, 2016. After giving birth to her child on July 11, 2016, Blanchet developed postpartum depression. As a result of her medical condition, Blanchet requested an accommodation of additional leave under the FMLA, which extended past her initial return-to-work date of September 4, 2016. At that time, Sedgwick, a third party who administered disability leave for Charter, was primarily responsible for all direct communications with employees who requested leave.

Charter made clear that Blanchet should not communicate directly with the company regarding disability leave, but should communicate with Sedgwick only. For example, Blanchet’s supervisor, Ryan Quigley, directed Blanchet to speak with Sedgwick only. Thus, Sedgwick was the only party that Blanchet communicated with to request leave for her disability.

Charter approved Blanchet’s requests for accommodatio