Ohio: Fired Employee Establishes Factual Issue as to Whether Employer’s Reasons Were Pretextual

An Ohio appellate court has reversed, in part, a trial court’s decision granting summary judgment to a defendant-employer in a retaliatory discharge action filed against it by a former employee, finding that there was an issue of fact as to whether the proferred reason for terminating the plaintiff was a pretext. The appellate court indicated that plaintiff had clearly established a prima facie case of workers’ compensation retaliation, but that the trial court found that the employer had articulated a legitimate nondiscriminatory reason for terminating him—poor performance. The court noted, however, that plaintiff presented evidence that prior to his work-related injury, he had received glowing performance reviews and that things changed following his injury. Plaintiff presented evidence that the poor reviews came only he gave the employer notice that he needed an MRI examination and that he had hired an attorney. Moreover, his firing took place only one day after plaintiff’s absence for muscle spasms related to his original injury. Finally, the court observed that there was evidence that another employee had similar performance to plaintiff—but no workers’ compensation claim—and that employee had not been disciplined or terminated. The court indicated plaintiff would need to prove his case, but he had established factual issues that precluded summary judgment.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is the co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance. Bracketed citations link to lexis.com.

See Harris v. OHNH EMP, LLC, 2015-Ohio–3212, 2015 Ohio App. LEXIS 3128 (Aug. 12, 2015) [2015-Ohio–3212, 2015 Ohio App. LEXIS 3128 (Aug. 12, 2015)]

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 104.07 [104.07]

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law.

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