The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York recently reviewed the disability discrimination cases coming out of other Federal courts around the country. The court concluded it had to throw out a nurse’s claim of employment discrimination stemming from a one-month leave of absence for hypertension.

   The court in this case applied the accepted legal principle that a short-term condition is not considered a disability for purposes of disability discrimination laws. One court ruled in 1996 that a three and one-half month absence for a temporary psychological impairment was not of sufficient duration to be considered a disability. Another court ruled the same year that a two-month recuperation from surgery also was not what the Americans With Disabilities Act intended to define as a disability. The nurse in this case returned to work after one month with her hypertension resolved and with no medical restrictions from her physician. Her hypertension was related to certain stressful events on the job, and was not expected to recur.