City employee’s FMLA retaliation case reinstated

A federal appeals court on Monday reinstated a Family Medical Leave Act retaliation case filed by a Texas city employee who was fired moments after she was due to return to her job after taking the leave.

Jessica Murillo, who worked for the city of Granbury, Texas, asked to take, and was granted, 12 weeks of FMLA in 2020 because she had lost her childcare, according to the ruling by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans in Jessica Murillo v. City of Granbury.

While she was out on leave, she received queries asking her when she intended to return to work. Two days before she was scheduled to return, she asked to use accumulated vacation time to extend her time off, but did not receive a response. She was terminated the same day she had been originally scheduled to return to work.

Ms. Murillo sued the city, charging retaliation under the FMLA, in U.S. District Court in Fort Worth, Texas, which ruled in the city’s favor.

It was overturned by a three-judge appeals court panel. Granbury “terminated Murillo the day after Murillo’s FMLA leave expired, and indeed minutes into the start of her work shift on the first day she was supposed to return while commenting on how glad they were to terminate her,” the ruling said.

“This ‘degree of temporal proximity’ clearly ‘support(s) a causal connection for purposes of a prima facie case’” of FMLA retaliation, the ruling said, in citing an earlier case, and concluding that “a genuine issue of material fact exists, at a minimum, regarding whether Granbury’s reasons for terminating Murillo was not pretextual.”

The case was remanded for further proceedings.

Kevin C. Smith, managing member of Kevin Smith PLLC in Fort Worth, who represented Ms. Murrillo, said in a statement,

“We are happy that Jessica will finally have her day in Court as she is legally entitled.”

The city’s attorneys did not respond to a request for comment.