Opinion ID: 2995199
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Retaliation Based on the FMLA

Text: The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the defendants with regard to Horwitz’s FMLA claim. While the FMLA provides certain substantive guarantees, the FMLA also affords employees protection in the event they are discriminated against for exercising their rights under the Act. King v. Preferred Technical Group, 166 F.3d 887, 891 (7th Cir. 1999). In a case where an employee is alleging discrimination based on the FMLA, [t]he issue becomes whether the employer’s actions were motivated by an impermissible retaliatory or discriminatory animus. Id. Horwitz asserts that the Board, Dr. Sloan, Dr. Biancalana, and Ballantyne violated the FMLA when they terminated her employment because she took leave to which she was entitled to under the FMLA. Because Horwitz alleges retaliatory discharge under the FMLA, she must establish that the parties involved engaged in intentional discrimination. Id. at 892. Since Horwitz has not provided us with any direct evidence of discrimination, we will apply the McDonnell Douglas burden- shifting framework to her claim that the Board, Dr. Sloan, Dr. Biancalana, and Ballantyne discriminated against her because she exercised her rights guaranteed by the FMLA. Id. To prove a prima facie case of retaliatory discharge under the FMLA, Horwitz must show that: (1) she engaged in a protected activity; (2) the Board, Dr. Sloan, Dr. Biancalana, and Ballantyne took an adverse employment action against her; and (3) there is a causal connection between her protected activity and the defendants’ adverse employment action. Id. The district court found that Horwitz had not provided the school with the requisite notice to trigger a FMLA claim. According to the district court, the undisputed record reflects that [the] Plaintiff did not provide information such that her employers would reasonably have been on notice as to the severity of her condition, until after [Dr.] Sloan had recommended her dismissal, and nearly a month after her initial absence. Indeed, Horwitz was absent from school beginning on March 16, 1999, and after repeated requests from Dr. Sloan to provide him with medical certification regarding her absence, her doctor sent an apparently inadequate certification on April 14th. Dr. Sloan then asked for more detailed information from Horwitz’s doctor. Horwitz’s doctor did send a more specific letter, dated April 22nd, to the school concerning Horwitz’s condition. However, Dr. Sloan in a letter dated April 21st (a day before the doctor’s note was written) had already told Horwitz that he was recommending to the Board that she be terminated. We have stated that an employee can be completely ignorant of the benefits conferred by the Act: it is sufficient notice if the employee provides the employer with enough information to put the employer on notice that FMLA- qualifying leave is needed. Stoops v. One Call Communications, Inc., 141 F.3d 309, 312 (7th Cir. 1998). There is serious doubt as to whether Horwitz provided the school with enough information to put it on notice that she needed a FMLA-qualifying leave. Nonetheless, we do not need to resolve this question because as we have previously discussed, the school has provided a legitimate, non-discriminatory reason for terminating Horwitz, which has not been determined to be pretextual. Therefore, we affirm the district court’s decision to enter summary judgment in favor of the Board, Dr. Sloan, Dr. Biancalana, and Ballantyne.