Opinion ID: 1004508
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Denial of Additional Maternity Leave

Text: While Cleary contends that Nationwide arbitrarily denied her maternity benefits, see Appellant’s Br., at 29, Nationwide contends that when Cleary took a nearly five-month leave, she more than exhausted her leave entitlement under company policies and the FMLA, see Appellee’s Br., at 12. Though company policy allowed up to five months’ leave in certain circumstances, Nationwide maintains that it required Cleary to return to work after just less than five months because her absence left the claims division short-handed. To show pretext, Cleary offers only evidence that an unidentified Nationwide official, in a hand-written note included in Cleary’s employee file, determined that her position would not have to be held open if her leave exceeded twelve weeks. Since twelve weeks was the amount of time off Cleary was entitled to under the FMLA, and since Nationwide, in fact, allowed her a much longer leave, this evidence is insufficient to support Cleary’s theory that she was denied additional maternity leave in retaliation for her harassment complaint.