By: Derek Hawkins//October 29, 2015//
Civil
7th Circuit Court of Appeals
Officials: FLAUM, KANNE, and SYKES, Circuit Judges
Statute of Limitations
No. 13-2833 Cindy Barrett v. Illinois Department of Corrections
“Appellant FMLA suit time barred” Barrett does not contest her ninth, tenth, eleventh, or twelfth unauthorized absences, the last of which occurred on May 14, 2010. On September 30, 2010, Barrett was suspended without pay pending termination for excessive absenteeism. She was fired on October 15, 2010. Barrett sought review before the Illinois Civil Service Commission. She did not raise an FMLA argument at the hearing. (Indeed, she never raised the FMLA with her supervisors or before the Employee Review Board either.) An administrative law judge recommended that the termination be sustained. The Commission adopted that recommendation, and Barrett did not pursue further review in Illinois state court. Instead, on January 27, 2012, she sued IDOC in federal court for violating her rights under the FMLA. At the summary-judgment stage, the district court concluded that the suit was barred by the FMLA’s two-year statute of limitations. § 2617(c)(1). Barrett had urged the court to find that the limitations period began to run when her employment was terminated on October 15, 2010. If the limitations clock started on that day, the suit was timely; she filed it 17 months later, within the two-year period. IDOC maintained, on the other hand, that the alleged FMLA violations accrued many years earlier, when Barrett was denied leave for each of the three absences she now claims were statutorily protected.”
Affirmed