George v. Russell Stover Candies, Inc.

106 F. App'x 946
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedJuly 16, 2004
DocketNo. 02-5592
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 106 F. App'x 946 (George v. Russell Stover Candies, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
George v. Russell Stover Candies, Inc., 106 F. App'x 946 (6th Cir. 2004).

Opinion

KENNEDY, Circuit Judge:

Plaintiff Connie George (“plaintiff’) filed this action against defendant Russell Sto-ver Candies, Inc. (“Russell Stover”), her former employer, and defendant Karla Glass, the personnel clerk of Russell Sto-ver, alleging that plaintiffs termination of employment violated the Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”), 29 U.S.C. § 2601 et seq.; Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VII”), as amended, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e, et seq.; and the Tennessee Human Rights Act (“THRA”), Tenn.Code Ann. § 4-21-302 et seq. Plaintiff appeals the district court’s grant of summary judgment to defendant Russell Stover on all of plaintiffs claims and its grant of summary judgment to defendant Glass on plaintiffs FMLA and THRA claims.1 Plaintiff also appeals the district court’s denial of her motion for partial summary judgment against both defendant Glass and defendant Russell Stover on plaintiffs FMLA and THRA claims.

I. Background

Plaintiff George began her employment at Russell Stover on October 6, 1992. On October 30, 1997, Russell Stover terminated plaintiff pursuant to its “no fault” attendance policy. The attendance policy dictated a progressive system of discipline, ranging from warnings to suspension to discharge, based upon the accumulation of “occurrences” for unapproved absences or “tardies,” which comprised late arrivals or early departures. The policy excluded approved absences or tardies, including FMLA-qualified leave, from designation as punitive occurrences. An unapproved absence for one to three consecutive work days constituted a single absence occurrence. The accumulation of a sixth absence occurrence within a rolling six-month period preceding the date of the most recent infraction (“the relevant six-month period”) triggered a three-day suspension; a seventh absence occurrence [948]*948triggered a termination. An employee’s unapproved tardy constituted a single tardy occurrence. However, an employee’s absence for more than half of her shift, where she appeared at work, constituted a double tardy for which she received two tardy occurrences. The accumulation of an eighth and ninth tardy occurrence within the relevant six-month period triggered a three-day suspension and discharge, respectively. Work Rule 1.7 provided that “abusers of the purpose and intent of the attendance guidelines will be subject to termination at the third suspension in six months.” Thus, Work Rule 1.7 dictated the termination of an employee who received three attendance-related suspensions — whether for absences, tardies, or a combination of both — within the relevant six-month period. Plaintiff conceded that she understood and was familiar with the operation of both the attendance policy, in general, and Work Rule 1.7, in particular.

Russell Stover had a written procedure requiring all employees to report their tar-dies or absences on an answering machine maintained at defendant Glass’ desk by providing their name, their supervisor’s name, and the reason for the absence or tardy — whether it was due to an illness or a personal reason. Certain authorized personnel had access to this answering machine for purposes of compiling the employees’ reported' information. Pursuant to this call-in policy, however, employees need not have provided the details of the underlying illness; rather, the logs documenting the calls would simply reflect either “personal” or “illness” as the reason for an absence or a tardy. Plaintiff conceded that she understood and was familiar with Russell Stover’s call-in policy.

Under Russell Stover’s FMLA policy, only its personnel office was authorized to handle an employee’s request for FMLA leave. In giving the requisite notice of the need for FMLA leave, an employee could either call or visit defendant Glass, who was then required to give the employee an FMLA packet, which contained various FMLA forms concerning notice, a request for leave, and medical certification. Neither defendant Glass nor an employee’s shift supervisors were authorized to grant or deny an employee’s request for FMLA leave; rather, only the personnel manager had such authority. Russell Stover determined whether an employee’s health condition underlying her FMLA leave request was FMLA-qualifying only upon receiving the requisite medical certification forms within a specific time frame. Absent the employee’s compliance with this medical certification process, Russell Stover counted her leave under its attendance policy. Plaintiff conceded that she understood and was familiar with Russell Stover’s internal policy regarding employee requests for FMLA leave.

Plaintiffs claims surround Russell Sto-ver’s termination of her, pursuant to Work Rule 1.7 of its “no fault” attendance policy, based, in part, upon its assessment of attendance occurrences under that policy for certain of her leaves of absence taken in 1997. We will address those leaves of absence in our analysis of plaintiffs claims.

II. Analysis

We review the district court’s order granting summary judgment de novo. Williams v. Mehra, 186 F.3d 685, 689 (6th Cir.1999). Summary judgment is proper “if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue of material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law.” Fed. R.Civ.P. 56(c). A “material” fact is one “that might affect the outcome of the suit under the governing law[.]” Anderson v. [949]*949Liberty Lobby, 477 U.S. 242, 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). A “genuine” issue exists “if the evidence is such that a reasonable jury could return a verdict for the nonmoving party.” Id. We must draw all justifiable inferences from the evidence in the non-moving party’s favor. Matsu-shita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 587, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986). “We may affirm a decision of the district court if correct for any reason, including one not considered below.” See United States Postal Serv. v. Nat’l Ass’n of Letter Carriers, AFL-CIO, 330 F.3d 747, 750 (6th Cir.2003).

FMLA Claims

The FMLA affords an eligible employee up to twelve weeks of leave within a twelve month period when the employee suffers from “a serious health condition that makes the employee unable to perform the functions of ... [her] position,” among other qualifying reasons. 29 U.S.C. § 2612(a)(1)(D). The term “serious health condition” signifies “an illness, injury, impairment, or physical or mental condition that involves ...

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Bluebook (online)
106 F. App'x 946, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/george-v-russell-stover-candies-inc-ca6-2004.