The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, in Brown v. ScriptPro, recently clarified that discharging an employee within two days of a request for medical leave does not by itself establish a violation of the Family and Medical Leave Act if there is uncontroverted evidence that the employee would have been discharged in the absence of the leave request.
Frank Brown, a customer service operations analyst employed by ScriptPro was dismissed two days after requesting medical leave. During his employment, Brown received mixed performance reviews. His performance review for 2007-2008 contained satisfactory or high rankings in the areas of “Quality of Work” and “Attendance,” but a marginal performance ranking for “Planning and Organization of Work” and “Work Relationships.”
