posted on Friday, November 11, 2005 1:04 PM
by
Rod Satterwhite
Taking a Bite out of the FMLA
A recent federal case coming out of St. Paul, Minnesota may save employers a headache when it comes to granting leave to their employees under the FMLA. Judge Donovan Frank, writing for the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, rejected an employee’s FMLA claim outright that he was illegally denied leave for the maladies of sinusitis and a tooth-ache (hence the title - yes, it's corny). In Hastings v. Carlson Mktg. Group, Inc., D. Minn., No. 04-3370, 10/27/05), the court held that the plaintiff’s ills were not serious conditions under the FMLA as a matter of law, and granted summary judgment for the employer stating that neither a toothache nor sinusitis are qualifying serious health conditions. In this case the plaintiff was scheduled to return to work after a period of leave. Instead, when the plaintiff awoke that morning with “mind numbing” tooth pain, he phoned his secretary to say he would not be making it in until the afternoon. The plaintiff ended up sleeping until 5:00 pm and was soon thereafter terminated and told by his employer that it was too late to get medical certification for his absence. In this case, the plaintiff testified that he was only incapacitated for one day, not three or more as required by the FMLA in order to be a serious health condition. However, the court stated that even if plaintiff had not shot himself in the foot in this way, and could prove that he was incapacitated for more than three days, he still would fail to make a showing that a toothache constitutes a serious health condition. Moreover, the court rejected the plaintiff’s argument that the employer was estopped from arguing that the condition was not serious because it had failed to request medical certification. Although possibly a minor victory, this court decision will save employers from the headache of being required under the FMLA to deal with employees’ trivial (albeit “mind numbing”) health conditions. Sometimes, you just have to take a couple of aspirin and do your job. At least it’s not the employers who are required to take the pain killers this time.
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