TEXARKANA, Texas - An admissions clerk for a Texarkana hospital has filed a lawsuit which claims she should not have been fired for excessive tardies because she had not exhausted her medical leave.
Claiming violations of the Family Medical Leave Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act, Rhonda Sherman filed suit against Christus St. Michael Health System on April 25 in the Eastern District of Texas, Texarkana Division.
Sherman began working for the defendant in April 2007 as an admission clerk. She states she started having work problems when her son's disability required her attention. She was granted FMLA leave on an intermittent basis. Shortly coming off of leave in Aug. 2010, she was terminated allegedly for excessive tardies.
"Plaintiff should not have been terminated because her son's needs required Plaintiff's care, she had been approved for intermittent leave and had not exhausted leave, and she followed all of Defendant's policies with respect of notification," the lawsuit states.
The defendant is accused of failing to follow its own policies, failing to adequately investigate the circumstances before it terminated Sherman and failing to redress the wrong after a reasonable investigation would have made clear the error.
The plaintiff is seeking damages for wages and benefits, compensatory damages, punitive damages, attorney's fees, court costs and interest.
Sherman is represented by Texarkana attorney Glen C. Hudspeth.
U.S. District Judge David Folsom is assigned to the case.
Case No. 5:11-cv-00092