Cape city responds to former firefighter's lawsuit

Cape Girardeau city government stated in a legal document filed this week it offered “multiple accomodations” for employment to then-firefighter Ryan Rascher after he suffered a seizure.

Rascher, who lives in the Dexter, Missouri, area, sued the city in November in Cape Girardeau County Circuit Court, alleging disabiility discrimination after the city fired him.

Attorney Al Spradling III filed the city’s answer to the suit Wednesday.

According to the lawsuit, Rascher was fired Oct. 22, 2015, eight months after he suffered a seizure while on duty.

He served as a master firefighter for the city for more than eight years before being dismissed.

The suit contends the city failed to provide “a reasonable accommodation” for Rascher, and its actions were unlawful and “outrageous.”

But Spradling wrote in the city’s legal response Rascher “refused various accommodations that were provided to the plaintiff by the city.”

The accommodations are not spelled out in the court document.

According to the response, Rascher could have returned to his normal duties with the fire department had he provided the city with a medical report from an occupational medicine specialist indicating he “was fit for duty.”

Rascher failed to provide such a document, Spradling wrote.

The city stated in the response “various treating and evaluating physicians disagreed on the nature and extent of plaintiff returning to his normal duties.”

Rascher “fails to state a claim for which relief may be granted as plaintiff has not alleged that there was a vacant position for which he was qualified as a reasonable accommodation within the fire department,” Spradling wrote.

The lawsuit alleges Rascher “has sustained lost wages and benefits of employment and is reasonably certain to sustain additional lost wages and benefits of employment in the future.”

The suit seeks more than $25,000 for lost wages and benefits, and other damages.

A case review is scheduled for April 10 before Circuit Judge Michael Gardner in Cape Girardeau County Circuit Court. But Rascher’s attorney, Andrew Tarry, earlier this month filed motions for a change of judge and change of venue.

The city has asked for the case to be dismissed.

mbliss@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3641

Pertinent address:

44 N. Lorimier St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.