Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani Partner Hiawatha Northington and Senior Counsel Sheridan Carr successfully obtained summary judgment on behalf of the firm’s client in a disability discrimination lawsuit pending in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi.
The plaintiff asserted claims under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for discrimination, failure to accommodate, and retaliation arising from the termination of her employment following an extended medical leave. After a full briefing, the court granted summary judgment in favor of the defense on all claims.
The court found that the plaintiff failed to present sufficiemissnt evidence to support any of her claims and held that she could not establish that the employer’s legitimate, non-discriminatory reason for termination, her failure to return to work with medical clearance after exhausting her leave, was pretextual. The court also noted that she admitted she never requested a reasonable accommodation, which is required to support a failure-to-accommodate claim. In addition, the court found that she did not engage in any protected activity under the ADA to support a retaliation claim.
Accordingly, the court dismissed all claims with prejudice and entered final judgment in favor of the employer, closing the case. This result reflects GRSM’s continued success in aggressively defending employers against ADA claims and in other complex employment matters in federal court.