Plaintiff's claim of race discrimination was dismissed when she failed to return to work after she exhausted her twelve weeks of FMLA leave.

In Sencherey, the plaintiff initially pursued remedies at the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, alleging that her separation from employment—which occurred as a result of the plaintiff’s failure to return to work after having exceeded the maximum allowable FMLA leave time of 12 weeks in a 12-month period—constituted gender discrimination. However, when the plaintiff filed her lawsuit in federal court, she alleged that her separation from employment constituted unlawful race and national origin discrimination in violation of Title VII, the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act and Section 1981. In dismissing the plaintiff’s claims in total, the Court agreed that the plaintiff failed to exhaust her administrative remedies with regard to her race and national origin discrimination claims pursuant to Title VII or the PHRA. Nonetheless, in addressing the merits of the plaintiff’s claims for purposes of those statutes and Section 1981, the Court noted that the plaintiff failed to provide any factual basis to demonstrate that her separation from employment occurred under circumstances that give rise to an inference of unlawful race or national origin discrimination. In fact, the Court expressly stated that the plaintiff’s “subjective beliefs” that she “was treated poorly is insufficient to establish the presence for discriminatory animus required for liability.” Accordingly, the Court granted summary judgment as to all counts of the plaintiff's complaint.

Case Law Alert - 2nd Qtr 2011