A federal appeals court in Cincinnati says a lawsuit against the Kalamazoo County Road Commission must go to trial.
In a ruling released Monday, June 27, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a decision by the federal court for the Western District of Michigan that dismissed Terry Tilley's lawsuit filed in 2011. It said Tilley was fired after seeking time off under the Family Medical Leave Act.
The Appeals Court did agree with the lower court in dismissing Tilley's claim of age discrimination. But it says the facts of the claim of wrongful firing under FLMA should be determined at trial.
This is the second time in recent years that the Appeals Court has sided with the plaintiff in a lawsuit against the Road Commission. It reversed the lower court's decision in a similar case filed in 2010. In that case, Road Commission employee Robert De Leon claimed he was fired when he took sick leave to deal with a chronic condition he said was aggravated by poor conditions in the Road Commission garage. The U-S supreme Court refused to hear the Road Commission's appeal in that case last year.
