Walton v. Ford Motor Co.

• Decision Date: 28 September 2005
• Docket Number: No. 04-1471.,04-1471.
• Citation: 424 F.3d 481
• Parties: Terry D. WALTON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. FORD MOTOR COMPANY; Visteon Corporation, Jointly and Severally, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

424 F.3d 481

Terry D. WALTON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. FORD MOTOR COMPANY; Visteon Corporation, Jointly and Severally, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 04-1471.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Argued: July 20, 2005.

Decided and Filed: September 28, 2005.

ARGUED: Maureen M. Crane, Pitt, Dowty, McGehee, Mirer & Palmer, Royal Oak, Michigan, for Appellant. John F. Birmingham, Jr., Foley & Lardner, Detroit, Michigan, for Appellees.

ON BRIEF: Beth M. Rivers, Megan A. Bonanni, Pitt, Dowty, McGehee, Mirer & Palmer, Royal Oak, Michigan, for Appellant. John F. Birmingham, Jr., Jeffrey S. Kopp, Foley & Lardner, Detroit, Michigan, for Appellees.

Before: BOGGS, Chief Judge; BATCHELDER and GIBBONS, Circuit Judges.

OPINION

BATCHELDER, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff-Appellant Terry D. Walton appeals the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of Defendant-Appellee Visteon Corporation ("Visteon") on Walton's claim that Visteon interfered with his attempt to exercise his rights under the Family Medical Leave Act of 1993 ("FMLA") by terminating him in violation of 29 U.S.C. § 2615(a)(1). Because we find that no reasonable jury could conclude that Walton provided Visteon with adequate notice of his intent to take leave for an FMLA-qualifying injury, we AFFIRM.

I.

Walton was hired as an hourly assembler at the Milan Plant on October 5, 1992.¹ One year later, Walton became a millwright in the maintenance department, a position he held until his employment was terminated in May 2001. A millwright is a skilled tradesman responsible for moving and assembling office furniture, operating heavy equipment, installing conveyor systems, hanging signs, and performing general maintenance around the plant. At all relevant times, Walton was also a member of Local 33, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America ("UAW").

On April 18, 2001, Walton suffered a knee injury while working in his yard at home after work. Following a briefing in his department on the morning of April 19, Walton informed his supervisor, Pat Nolan, that he had twisted his knee the day before and that he intended to visit the medical department to have his knee evaluated. During his visit to the medical department, the Milan Plant's nurse, Susan Kinnick, made a preliminary diagnosis of a sprain/strain to the left knee and she gave Walton a cold compress, ibuprofen, and an elastic bandage. Walton neither requested leave nor did he obtain leave of absence forms from the medical department.

Following his visit to the medical department, Walton returned to work for the remainder of the morning. At around noon, he informed Nolan that he had scheduled a doctor's appointment for the afternoon of April 19. Nolan cleared Walton to leave for his appointment, and Walton went to the office of Dr. Rex Figy. Dr. Figy examined Walton and gave him a note instructing him to remain off work until he could be evaluated by Dr. Thomas Merritt, an orthopedic surgeon. Walton did not return to work on April 19 or contact anybody at Visteon to inform them of his status.

On April 20, Walton called the Milan Plant's security office and informed security that he had visited the doctor and had been told to stay off work until he could see a specialist on April 24. Security recorded Walton's call in the Hourly Personnel Absence Call-In Log Sheet. The entry indicates that the reason for Walton's absence was that he was "sick" and that his expected date of return was April 24. Floor supervisors and the labor relations department receive a periodic distribution of the Hourly Personnel Absence Call-In Log Sheet, but Walton made no attempt to contact directly his supervisor, the labor relations department, or the medical department to inform them of the actual reason for his absence, and he did not provide anyone at Visteon with any medical documentation supporting his absence.

At his appointment with Dr. Merritt on April 24, Walton was diagnosed with having torn the superficial medial collateral ligament in his left knee. As a result, Dr. Merritt disabled Walton from working until May 28. On April 25, Walton again contacted the Milan Plant's security office and informed security that he had attended his scheduled doctor's appointment on April 24 and had been told to stay off work for the next four weeks. The entry in the Hourly Personnel Absence Call-In Log Sheet on this date also indicates that the reason for Walton's absence was that he was "sick" and that his expected date of return was May 28. Once again, Walton made no attempt to contact his supervisor, the labor relations department, or the medical department, and he did not submit any medical paperwork memorializing Dr. Merritt's disability finding to Visteon.

Consequently, on April 27, Visteon sent Walton a letter by registered mail informing him that he had five business days to contact Visteon's labor relations department or his employment would be terminated. Pursuant to Article VIII, Section 5 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement governing Walton's employment, such "5-day quit letters" provide that "[s]eniority shall be broken" if the "employee does not, within five (5) working days ... after notice to report has been sent to him/her, either report to work or give a satisfactory reason for his/her absence ... provided at least ten (10) working days have elapsed since his/her last day worked." The notice provided: "If you are unable to work because of illness or injury, and so report to the Employment Office within the time stated above, you will be granted a sick leave of absence to cover the period of your disability upon presenting satisfactory evidence thereof."

Although Walton admits that he received a note from the post office notifying him of the certified letter, he maintains that he did not receive the notice until May 8, the same day that he actually retrieved the letter from the post office. Postal records confirm, however, that although Walton did retrieve the 5-day quit letter from the post office on May 8, he was first notified by mail on April 30 that a certified letter awaited him.

Meanwhile, on May 4, Visteon notified Walton's union that Walton's employment was terminated because he had not provided evidence of a qualified leave for his absence between April 20 and May 4, or responded to the 5-day quit notice. On May 9, one day after Walton claims to have received the 5-day quit letter and five days after his termination, he contacted Visteon's labor relations department and he drove to the Milan Plant and gave a copy of the medical notes he had received from his doctors to his UAW representative, Fred Probst, who eventually forwarded the medical documentation to Visteon.² Probst also provided Walton with the medical certification paperwork (Form 5166) required to support an approved medical leave while at the Milan Plant on May 9. He then took these forms to the office of his personal physician, Dr. Mary Baldwin, to be completed. The forms were completed and ready for Walton to pick up from Dr. Baldwin's office on May 15. Walton thereafter retrieved the forms and submitted them to Visteon on May 16, and the documents were forwarded to medical department on May 17. Visteon nevertheless refused to reinstate Walton.

Visteon's internal procedures generally require that in order properly to request medical leave an employee must notify the labor relations department within two business days of his initial absence and then complete the requisite FMLA forms to be returned to the medical department. Over the course of Walton's employment with Ford and Visteon, the companies issued multiple notices to employees at the Milan Plant that informed them how to obtain an FMLA leave. The notices were posted on bulletin boards located in the medical office, outside the union benefits office, and near the labor relations office. Visteon also posted and attached a bulletin to hourly employees' paychecks in July 2000 entitled "Family Medical Leave Act of 1993." This particular bulletin recited the proper procedures for requesting FMLA leave and it specifically stated, "Do not request FMLA through security." Because Walton had taken several prior medical leaves, for which he had provided proper notice and submitted the medical certification forms properly, he was aware of Visteon's policy.

Walton nevertheless maintains that throughout his nine years of employment at the Milan Plant it was standard procedure for hourly employees to contact the Milan Plant's security office to report absences for any reason. Several Visteon employees, however, explained that while it was proper to call security to report an absence, the primary purpose of such a rule was to allow shift managers to properly staff the assembly lines and related positions when an employee is calling in for an unscheduled absence. Accordingly, two of Walton's co-workers averred that they knew that merely calling security was not sufficient to request or receive FMLA certification, and Walton himself conceded that he knew security could not grant a medical leave of absence. Visteon's express prohibition against contacting security to request FMLA leave flows, in part, from the fact that the security guards at the Milan Plant are not Visteon employees, but independent contractors leased from a temporary agency, who are given no FMLA training.

II.

We turn now to Walton's primary contention on appeal, which is that the district court erred by granting Visteon's motion for summary judgment. We review a district court's grant of summary judgment de novo. Williams v. Mehra, 186 F.3d 685, 689 (6th Cir.1999) (en banc). Summary judgment is proper "if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." FED. R. CIV. P. 56(c). We view...