Kelly v. Boeing Petroleum Services Inc‪.‬

This is an appeal from the district courts judgment, following a jury verdict adverse to Plaintiff-Appellant Peter J. Kelly, dismissing his suit against his former employer, Defendant-Appellee Boeing Petroleum Services, Inc. (BPS). Kellys suit was for damages and injunctive relief under the Louisiana Civil Rights Act for Handicapped Persons (the Act). On appeal, Kelly complains that the district court erred reversibly in (1) excluding evidence of other discriminatory acts and utterances by Kellys immediate supervisor, Frank Lemoine, and (2) instructing the jury that a plaintiff, like Kelly, who seeks to recover under the Act on a reasonable accommodation claim has the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that the employer intentionally discriminated on the basis of a handicap when it failed to accommodate the handicapped employee. Concluding that the trial court did not commit reversible error in either instance, we affirm.