Employment — FMLA

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United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit

Civil

Employment — FMLA

Where no evidence supports an employer’s claim that a terminated employee’s sales had declined, summary judgment should not have been granted to the employer on the employee’s FMLA claim.

“TIN claims there were independent grounds to find that Pagel’s performance had become unacceptable. For example, TIN contends that Pagel’s sales revenue and volume had declined, he had identified no new target customers, and he did not contact two prospective customers in his territory. According to TIN, this independent data should have permitted Kremer to fire Pagel even if he completely ignored Pagel’s performance during the ride along. We are not convinced. First, the district court relied solely on Pagel’s performance during the ride along in finding that TIN had a nondiscriminatory reason for firing Pagel. Pagel, 832 F. Supp. 2d at 973-74. Second, and as the district court found, much of the evidence on which TIN relies is disputed, and we are of course required to draw all inferences in Pagel’s favor at summary judgment, Draper, 664 F.3d at 1113. For example, Pagel contends that his commission-based salary should have declined if TIN’s claims about the drop-off in his sales revenue and volume were really true. To the contrary, the record suggests Pagel’s salary remained stable. Moreover, Kremer conceded that some of the reporting observations he made in the termination memo were inaccurate. Perhaps these independent grounds for termination will play a role at trial, but at summary judgment, we find that Pagel has offered sufficient evidence of interference to survive.”

Reversed and Remanded.

11-2318 Pagel v. TIN, Inc.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois, McDade, J., Kanne, J.