NWCDN Members regularly post articles and summary judgements in workers’ compensations law in your state.
Select a state from the dropdown menu below to scroll through the state specific archives for updates and opinions on various workers’ compensation laws in your state.
Contact information for NWCDN members is also located on the state specific links in the event you have additional questions or your company is seeking a workers’ compensation lawyer in your state.
The Texas Supreme Court recently held that an employer did not retaliate against a Claimant for
filing a workers’ compensation claim when the Claimant was terminated in accordance with the
employer’s uniformly applied leave policy following the expiration of the Family Medical Leave
Act (FMLA) leave period. Kingsaire, Inc. v. Melendez, ___ S.W.3d ___, 2015 WL 7950716, * 8
(Tex. 2015).
The Claimant sustained a compensable work injury on 07/02/09. Claimant was notified that he
would be placed on unpaid FMLA leave effective 07/03/09, for up to twelve weeks and that he was
required to provide status updates on his ability to return to work every two weeks. Claimant
provided the work status updates as required by the employer. On 09/24/09, the employer notified
Claimant that his FMLA leave expired, that he had not yet been released to return to work by his
workers’ comp doctors, and that his employment was terminated effective 09/25/09. In October 2009, Claimant sued the employer for wrongful termination in retaliation for his filing a workers’
compensation claim. The jury entered a verdict in favor of Claimant.
The Court reviewed the evidence on a legal sufficiency standard and determined that the evidence
showed Claimant was terminated in accordance with the employer’s consistent and uniform
enforcement of its leave policy. The Court held that no evidence supported the jury’s verdict on the
retaliatory discharge claim.