UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE
NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS
RYAN CHRISTIANSON.,
Plaintiff
-vs-
BICYCLE MESSENGERS, INC.
YAMAHONDA,
,
Defendants.
DEPOSITION OF SEAN IMPERIATO,
PRESIDENT OF BICYCLE MESSENGERS, INC.
BY THE COURT REPORTER
Q. Do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?
A. I do
Q. Please state your full name and occupation.
A. I’m Sean Imperiato, and I’m the owner, president and CEO of Bicycle Messengers, Inc.
BY COUNSEL FOR PLAINTIFF CHRISTIANSON
Q. Did you ever see the plaintiff ride his bike after the accident?
Did he ride his bicycle to work? Was he invited to come back to work? Basically, just tell me what happened when he came back.
A. No, he wasn’t invited back to work. That would have been ridiculous. We should not have to waste time with ridiculous ideas like that. He was a great guy; we all agreed on that. And we were sorry he got hurt. But you can’t be a bicycle messenger with one leg. Everyone knows that.
And no, I haven’t seen him ride his bicycle. I knew he was in the office. I heard him in the hallway and knew that there was kind of argument going on—from the raised voices. My personnel manager was arguing with him and asked me to intervene.
He said he wanted to come back to work, and I told him, I said, “I’m very sorry. You know you can’t do this job anymore. We’ll give you a recommendation.”
Q. Can you tell us what the qualifications are to be a bicycle messenger with your company?
A. Well, you got to be able to ride a bicycle. Bicycles have two pedals and you need two feet to work them. Not only that, you have to be able to ride around in traffic, dodging cars and trucks. You have to have precise judgment on whether you have an inch—two inches—of clearance with the handlebars. You have to be completely agile so you can get through those close spaces. You have to have absolutely all your faculties. Not only that, there’re lots of situations whether, in order to get the package upstairs you will have to carry your bicycle with you.
It’s very demanding physically. You have to have all your faculties to do the job.
Q. so that’s why you fired him, because he had only one leg?
A. I wouldn’t say we “fired” him. He got hurt and he left his job and then we wanted to come back and we told him he couldn’t come back.
Q. The only reason you wouldn’t let him come back was because he lost his leg.
A. I wouldn’t say that. He was off
work for seven, eight months—I don’t remember how long. If he had been off that
long just because he want to
Q. Do you have any other employees besides bicycle messengers?
A. Well, there’s me, five messengers, the bookkeeper, the dispatcher and the uh personnel manager.
Q. were there any other jobs that our client could have performed?
A. Well, I don’t know. Maybe he could be a dispatcher. I suppose he could do that. I don’t know whether he knows anything about bookkeeping or personnel. No, why would you do that?
Q. Was there any other reason why you didn’t rehire him, other than that he lost it leg.
A. Well, I don’t know. We certainly knew about the accident and we knew he lost his leg. We were very concerned about him. We went to see him in the hospital several times, sent him flowers, that sort of thing.
Q. Did you talk to him about coming back to work?
A. Of course not. Don’t be ridiculous. You can’t be a bicycle messenger with one leg. I know that. Everyone knows that. I would have assumed that he knew that.
Q. So you never actually asked him to ride a bike?
A. No, of course not. Why would I do that? Why would I try to embarrass him? Don’t be ridiculous. I told you, I liked him. Everyone liked him.
Q. Did you consider letting him use some other kind of vehicle?
A. No of course not. Look at the name of our company. It’s called “Bicycle Messangers, Inc.”
Q. What would you say uh is a typical day for a bicycle messenger?
A. Well, they have to they have to clock in—the first thing they do is they clock in—then they get their uh, and then they have their bicycle. Then they get their first assignment, while they are in the office, and they go and pick up a package and assignment will tell them where they are supposed to deliver it. So they pick up the package an go as quickly as possible to the destination, where they deliver it. And after that, they get further assignments on their hand-held radios, from the dispatcher.
Q. Do you supply the bicycles?
A. Yeah.
Q. Do you supply any other vehicles or any other mode of transportation?
A. No. Why would we?
Q. Are you aware of any other means of delivering packages.
A. Well, sure. 747s, 727s—Fed Ex uses lots of those. But we’re the “Bicycle Messengers.” We use bicycles.
Q. Actually that’s a good segue . . .
A. A what?
Q. A seque . . .
A. What’s a “seg-way”?
Q. It’s a little motorized thing that you ride on the sidewalk with.
A. Well I don’t know anything about that. We use bicycles.
Q. If he had just been sick and had come back, would you have rehired him?
A. Not if he only had one leg.
Q. No, if he had been sick and was out for the same amount of time—eight months--but had two legs, two arms, two eyes, his whole body and was not healthy, would you have hired him?
A. Well, I guess. If he gave notice, and was gone no longer than he said. Sure. I think so. Anyway under the Family and Medical Leave Act, we are required to give 12 weeks of unpaid leave . . .
There is no reason to think he couldn’t do the job.
Q. Is there any thing you could have changed that would let him come back?
A. You are asking me whether there is any form of reasonable accommodation that would allow him to perform the essential functions of the position?
Well, I don’t know. I haven’t thought about it. No one ever asked for it.
Q. Were you aware that he’s been winning bicycle races since he lost his leg?
A. No. That’s the first I’ve heard of it.
Q. Where you aware that he’s been through rehabilitation and has a prosthetic leg and walks and runs well with it?
A. Sure. I told you we visited him often. We were really proud of him.
Q. But at that point you figured that he would not want to return to work due to---his having one leg?
A. Right.
Q. If Mr. Christianson at that point had had two legs, you would have assumed that after he recovered from injuries he would want to return to work?
A. I don’t know. I suppose it would depend on the nature of the injuries.
Q. So you fired him because he had only one leg.
A. I still don’t agree that we fired him.
Q. But you didn’t let him come back to work.
A. Well we didn’t let him come back to work because he couldn’t do the job.
Q. Was there any other reason, besides the reason that he lost his leg?
A. We never got past that. There might have been other reasons. I never got past that. That was so obvious.
Q. So that was the only reason.
A. Well, we never got past that. I mean it was just ridiculous. We didn’t need to waste any more time on it
Q. Did you ever ask him whether he could ride a bicycle still?
A. Why would I ask him that? It was obvious that he couldn’t.
Q. If he had shown you he could ride a bike, would you have hired him back?
A. Well I don’t uh I don’t see why we would have how how could he show me he could ride a bike when he can’t? I mean, you’re asking me to imagine the impossible.
Q. Was he walking when he came to the office?
A. Yeah, he was walking.
Q. How did his gait look?
A. It looked all right. I thought he was doing real well.
Q. You thought he was doing real well, but you wouldn’t consider taking him back?
A. Well walking in the office on
the carpet is a whole lot different from riding a bicycle in a
on
Q. If someone had told you he was winning all the bicycle races, would you have taken him back?
A. Well, we never got that far.
Q. Well I mean that you didn’t . . .And you never asked him about being able to ride a bike?
A. Why would I ask that? I didn’t want to embarrass the kid. Here this guy got hurt and we felt we felt real bad for him and tried to show our sympathy and I told him we’d help him find another job. And now we’re in a lawsuit. Go figure.
WHEREUPON THE DEPOSITION WAS
CONCLUDED AT APPROXIMATELY 2020 HOURS, ON