Court of Appeals Affirms Grant of Summary Judgment in Favor of Defendants on Wrongful Discharge Claim

Plaintiff in Wusk v Evangelical Retirement Homes, No. 15-0166 (Iowa App. Dec. 23, 2015) asserted that she was wrongfully terminated from employment as a result of pursuing a workers' compensation claim.  The district court ruled in the employer's favor on summary judgment and the Court of Appeals affirmed.

Plaintiff suffered a work related injury to her arm and pursued a workers' compensation claim.  On November 5, 2012, claimant was released from all restrictions and was cleared for regular duty work. Claimant called and left a message for her supervisor about this, and her supervisor called back within a day and left a message for claimant.  After this, claimant did not speak to anyone with the employer.  Her workers' compensation claim was settled on July 9, 2013.

 Claimant was terminated in August of 2013, because she had not scheduled any hours and had not followed the terms of the pool agreement.  Claimant indicated she contacted the nursing home after this to find out why her employment was terminated, but was unable to obtain any information.  Claimant filed a claim in district court for retaliatory discharge.

Defendants moved for summary judgment and the district court concluded that plaintiff had failed to establish a causal connection between the filing of her workers' compensation action and later termination.  The Court of Appeals noted that to establish a prima facie case of retaliatory discharge, plaintiff must show 1) engagement in a protected activity; 2) adverse employment action and 3) a casual connection between the two.  For the purposes of this case, only #3 was in issue.

The court noted that the causal connection standard in a wrongful discharge claim was high.  Plaintiff must demonstrate that the filing of the workers' compensation claim "was the determining factor in the adverse employment action."  Because plaintiff had not made any attempt to contact the employer in the six months after November 5, 2012, the court concluded that claimant had failed to establish causation.  The court also concluded that it was "inadmissible hearsay" that it was "common knowledge" that the filing of a workers' compensation claim would lead to discharge.  The retaliatory discharge claim failed as a matter of law.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Court of Appeals Affirms Denial of Workers' Compensation Benefits; Rules on Credit Issue

2021 Workers' Compensation Appeal Decisions

2024 Workers' Compensation Appeal Decisions