Anderson v. Nations Lending Corporation

Dist. Ct. did not err in granting defendant-employer’s motion for summary judgment in plaintiff-employee’s FMLA action, alleging that defendant terminated plaintiff so as to interfere with her FMLA right to return to same position after her FMLA leave, and because she had exercised her FMLA right to take said leave of absence. Record showed that defendant had investigated plaintiff’s work-related errors both before and during her FMLA leave of absence and then terminated her shortly after she had returned from FMLA leave, when defendant had completed its investigation. Dist. Ct. could properly find that defendant had actually terminated plaintiff because of her work-related errors, and that defendant’s standards of conduct allowed defendant to terminate plaintiff for substandard conduct without first undertaking corrective action. Moreover, employee is not entitled to return to her prior position if she would have been terminated regardless of whether she had taken FMLA leave. Also, plaintiff’s retaliation claim failed, because: (1) plaintiff failed to present evidence to dispute fact that she had committed work-related errors; and (2) summary judgment is proper, where, as here, termination was based on plaintiff’s poor job performance.