A federal appeals court on Wednesday granted a new hearing to a 40-year-old man who claimed the Atlanta Police Department rejected his job application because he has HIV.

The ruling was a victory for gay rights advocates and the health groups who had closely watched the case, which was brought in 2010 by a man using the pseudonym Richard Roe.

Among other findings, the three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in the ruling that the city lulled Roe into believing he didn't need to prove his HIV was "non-serious." It ordered the judge who dismissed the lawsuit to take another look at that issue and others prompted by the lawsuit.

The ruling was no surprise, as the panel expressed skepticism about the city's arguments during oral arguments last week, and one judge suggested the court had little choice but to send the case back to the federal judge.