LEWISTON — A local man filed a complaint with a state agency against a Tennessee trucking company claiming it wrongly rescinded a job offer after learning about his disability.

Timothy Lynch, who has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, was 25 years old in 2010 when he applied for a job with Western Express Inc. as a truck driver. He claims that Western Express violated the medical examination provisions of the Maine Human Rights Act and withdrew an offer as a driver because of his disability.

Western Express denied Lynch’s claim, explaining that the job offer was withdrawn because Lynch was not medically qualified to drive a commercial motor vehicle in accordance with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations.

An investigator at the Maine Human Rights Commission wrote a report for the Board of Commissioners concluding that reasonable grounds exist to believe that Western Express conducted an unlawful medical examination and withdrew a job offer from Lynch on the basis of a mental disability.

The investigator, Barbara Lelli, recommended that the two parties should attempt to reconcile their differences in keeping with state law.

Western Express employs about 1,750 workers and is subject to both the Maine Human Rights Act and the federal Americans with Disabilities Act.

Lynch, who had been taking medication for ADHD for 20 years as of 2010, applied on their website for the position of interstate truck driver. He met the minimum qualifications for the job and was hired around Sept. 30, 2010, Lelli wrote in her report.

All applicants for that position are required by Western Express to pass a pre-placement physical conducted by the company’s medical examiner.

On Oct. 11, 2010, Lynch reported to a medical doctor licensed in Tennessee who reviewed Lynch’s health history and medications, examined his vision, hearing, blood pressure, lab tests and conducted a physical examination. After that doctor also talked to a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner licensed in Maine who had treated Lynch, the doctor checked the box marked: “Does not meet standards.”

Western Express withdrew the job offer.

According to a document filled out by the nurse in April 2010, she had said that Lynch was taking his prescribed medication and that “he has not demonstrated any side effects which would interfere with the safe operation of a motor vehicle.”

In September 2010, Lynch was examined by a chiropractor in Ellsworth who concluded that Lynch met the commercial motor vehicle driver standards required by federal code.

Another Maine doctor cleared him for a driving job the following May, Lelli’s report said.

The doctor in Tennessee told the MHRC investigator that he remembered speaking to Lynch’s nurse, who told the doctor that “she did not feel Mr. Lynch was qualified to drive, but was essentially pressured into signing the certification.”

While the Tennessee doctor claimed he told Lynch that he should see a psychiatrist familiar with DOT regulations and might change his recommendation depending on the psychiatrist’s opinion, Lynch disputes that assertion, saying the doctor never told him that.

The Maine Human Rights Commission board is scheduled to take up this case at its Sept. 24 meeting.

If the board were to support the investigator’s recommendation, an out-of-court agreement is encouraged. If the two sides are unable to agree, the board would look to the legal department to recommend whether to take legal action or not before taking a final vote.

[email protected]