AARP Bulletin - December 2011

Your AARP ; The Law

By Emily Sachar

; The issue: Can state workers receive monetary damages if they are denied time off under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act?

Daniel Coleman, 59, of Baltimore worked at the Maryland Court of Appeals for six years, including four as executive director for procurement. But in August 2007 he took a 10-day leave of absence for a medical condition. Within four hours of notifying his boss by email that he had to take time off, he was told he could either resign with 30 days’ leave or be immediately terminated. In the end, he was fired.

“I am still very emotional about this,” Cole-
man said in an interview. “This happened
in an organization that is supposed to stand
and cannot be sued for financial damages.

; ‘I am still very emotional about this,’ said Daniel Coleman.

for justice.” At the time, Coleman had one son in college and another about to go. “In four hours, I went from six figures [in salary] to zero,” he said.

Coleman sued the Maryland Court of Appeals for denial of coverage under the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993. He claimed that he was a victim of retaliation when he was fired and should have been covered by the FMLA’s self-care medical provisions. But so far, two lower federal courts—the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, in 2009, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in Richmond, Va., in 2010—have thrown out Coleman’s case on the grounds that the agency where Coleman worked, because it is a state employer, is protected by the 11th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution

; What it means to you: If you are a state worker who needs a medical leave, check in advance to see if the agency where you work will grant one. Watch the outcome of the upcoming Supreme Court case. ;