Eighth Circuit Clarifies FMLA Employees Rights Against Interference

The Eighth Circuit recently released an opinion in the case of Clinkscale vs. St. Therese of New Hope, which clarifies an employees rights to use FMLA leave without interference.  On November 13, 2012, the Eighth Circuit released the decision which ruled that the District Court improperly held that St. Therese did not have notice of Clinkscale's need for medical leave  prior to her termination and, alternatively, that Clinkscale had been terminated for patient abandonment and not for asserting her FMLA rights.

The Clinkscale case involves compellng facts that led the Eighth Circuit to find that St. Therese granted Clinkscale  leave to attend to her mental  health and  decided retroactively that Clinkscale  had  quit before  she  could  submit paperwork the following morning to suggest she had left to seek treatment for  a serious health condition.  Thus, St. Therese bore the risk that the Plaintiff's crying, shaking and generally distraught countenance would  require  additional leave  for  what  was diagnosed  mere  hours  later  as a qualifying health condition.   In Clinkscale the employer's Human Resources Director had specifically directed the Plaintiff to leave work for the day because the Plaintiff had a panic attack in the Director's office.  Thus, the employer's arguments that the Plaintiff had walked off the job and abandoned patients rang hollow given that the Plaintiff's submitted her FMLA form from her doctor immediately after her doctor's appointment the next day.

This is a significant case reflecting that in the Eighth Circuit an employee can have symptoms that later rise to the level of a serious medical condition justify protected time off under the FMLA.

If you live in Omaha, Lincoln, Lancaster County, Douglas County, Otoe, or Cass Counties and you need an employment law attorney, consider contacting Angela Y. Madathil and the Madathil Law Firm. 

Contact us at angela@madathil-law.com or by telephone at 402.577.0686.  For more information feel free to look at our website www.madathil-law.com.