By Gerald L. Maatman, Jr., Tiffany Alberty, and Bernadette Coyle
Duane Morris Takeaways: On June 1, 2026, in Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. A&A Appliance, Inc., No. 1:23-CV-2456 (D. Colo. June 1, 2026), Chief Judge Daniel D. Domenico of the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado granted Defendant A&A Appliances, Inc.’s (“A&A”) motion to deem the EEOC’s claims under the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) frivolous, unreasonable, and without foundation, entitling the employer to seek a full award of attorneys’ fees. This decision is an important read for corporate counsel facing employment discrimination cases, particularly EEOC-initiated litigation. The ruling demonstrates that the federal agency can face fee-shifting consequences when it pursues claims that lack evidentiary support from their inception.
Case Background
Defendant A&A Appliance, Inc. (“A&A”) employed Karima Javanzad from February 2019 to June 2020. During the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ms. Javanzad sought a 12-week FMLA leave for varied reasons, including her own possible COVID-19 infection, her son’s illness, and a gastrointestinal condition. A&A approved the medical leave retroactively, covering mid-March through early June 2020. Over the following weeks, A&A and Ms. Javanzad exchanged emails, calls, and texts about when her leave would expire and whether an extension was possible. When Ms. Javanzad did not return to work after her leave ran out, A&A terminated her employment on June 10, 2020, explaining that it had offered to extend her leave only if the original FMLA-triggering condition warranted it, and that her gastrointestinal disorder (unrelated to COVID-19) did not qualify.
Ms. Javanzad subsequently filed a charge of discrimination with the EEOC in December 2020, asserting that A&A had discriminated against her based on her disability and retaliated against her for seeking a reasonable accommodation. Following its investigation, the EEOC concluded there was reasonable cause to believe A&A violated the ADA and attempted to resolve the matter through conciliation. After those efforts failed, the EEOC filed suit in September 2023 claiming: (1) failure to accommodate, (2) disparate treatment, and (3) retaliation under the ADA.
In September 2025, the Court granted summary judgment in favor of A&A on every claim, concluding that the EEOC had not demonstrated that A&A was ever on notice of a qualifying disability that required accommodation under the ADA. A&A then moved for an order deeming the EEOC’s claims frivolous, unreasonable, and without foundation so that it could recover its full attorney’s fees.
The Court’s Decision
Chief Judge Domenico granted A&A’s motion. The Court applied the standard from Christiansburg Garment Co. v. EEOC, 434 U.S. 412 (1978), which permits an award of attorney’s fees to a prevailing defendant in an ADA case where the court finds that the plaintiff’s claim was “frivolous, unreasonable, or groundless, or that the plaintiff continued to litigate after it clearly became so.” Id. at 422.
The Court applied three factors from the Eleventh Circuit’s decision in Walker v. NationsBank of Florida, N.A., 53 F.3d 1548 (11th Cir. 1995), which the Tenth Circuit has affirmed: (1) whether the plaintiff established a prima facie case; (2) whether the defendant offered to settle; and (3) whether the trial court dismissed the case prior to trial or held a full-blown trial on the merits. All three factors weighed in A&A’s favor — the EEOC failed to establish a prima facie case, A&A offered to settle, and the case was dismissed on summary judgment before trial.
The Court rejected the EEOC’s argument that the Christiansburg Garment standard is met only when a party “utterly fails to produce any evidence in support of material issues necessary to withstand summary judgment.” The Court explained that while the EEOC presented some evidence that Ms. Javanzad had a disability and requested leave, it failed to present evidence for the critical element of A&A’s knowledge of the claimed disability. As the Court emphasized, “[a] ‘health condition’ does not equate to a qualifying disability under the ADA” and “knowledge of a health condition is not necessarily knowledge of a disability.”
Importantly, the Court found that the EEOC had multiple years before initiating the action in September 2023 to investigate the facts and apply established case law. The EEOC’s own initial complaint showed that it knew Ms. Javanzad was diagnosed with vocal cord paralysis and gastritis after her June 9 endoscopy, and thus presumably after her June 10 termination, and that she was diagnosed with COVID-19 after termination. These facts undermined the EEOC’s assertion that its evidence changed throughout discovery. Moreover, fact discovery closed in July 2024, seven months before the dispositive motion deadline, and A&A raised issues of factual and legal deficiencies throughout litigation prior to summary judgment.
Finally, the Court noted that the EEOC is not a “regular plaintiff” and that courts may consider distinctions between the Commission and private plaintiffs. Quoting the Fifth Circuit, the Court observed that the EEOC “owes duties to employers as well: a duty reasonably to investigate charges, a duty to conciliate in good faith, and a duty to cease enforcement attempts after learning that an action lacks merit.” EEOC v. Agro Distribution, LLC, 555 F.3d 462, 473 (5th Cir. 2009). The Court concluded: “Ms. Javanzad might have been excused from pressing these issues. The EEOC is not.” For these reasons, the Court entitled A&A to reasonable attorney’s fees.
Implications For Employers
For employers facing EEOC-initiated litigation, this decision underscores the importance of raising factual and legal deficiencies early, consistently and persistently throughout discovery, as the Court credited A&A’s efforts to put the EEOC on notice of the weaknesses in its case. This decision also reinforces that while there is a high threshold for establishing entitlement to attorney’s fees, prevailing defendants are not without recourse when the EEOC presses claims lacking foundational evidentiary support.