Employment – FMLA – retaliation

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U.S. Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit Civil

Civil

Employment – FMLA – retaliation

Where a professor refused to teach courses and was divisive, the district court properly granted summary judgment to the university on his claim that the failure to appoint him department chair was in retaliation for filing an FMLA claim.

“[R]ecord evidence suggests that Carter twice refused to teach one of his classes for an entire semester. Carter also conceded that he had been previously removed by the university president as chair of the department. In doing so, the president cited Carter’s ‘overall ineffective leadership evidenced by extreme divisiveness within the department and faculty perception of inequitable standards applied to department members.’ Faced with these facts, and the lack of information presented by Carter, a reasonable jury simply could not have concluded that Hunt was no more qualified than Carter.”

Affirmed.

13-3367 Carter v. Chicago State University

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Pallmeyer, J., Kanne, J.

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