Ennin v. CNH Industrial America, LLC, 878 F.3d 590

Ennin, a Ghana-born, naturalized U.S. citizen, worked as an Export Second Shift Operations Supervisor for CNH in Indiana and was the only Black supervisor at the facility.
He received a written warning in May 2014 for misconduct and had a November 17, 2014 incident: his car broke down, an hourly employee (Chavez) left while clocked in to assist him, and Ennin allowed Chavez to enter through the supervisor entrance without swiping and failed to correct Chavez’s timesheet.
CNH managers met with Ennin on November 19 and (they say) decided then to terminate him for policy violations; Ennin left work that day and underwent a hemorrhoidectomy on November 21, receiving short-term disability and FMLA leave from Prudential.
CNH sent a termination letter dated December 1 stating the decision was made on November 19; Ennin sought to admit emails/texts suggesting the decision was made December 1 but CNH objected as hearsay/unauthenticated and Ennin did not file a surreply to contest those objections.
The district court excluded Ennin’s proffered evidence as waived, found the undisputed record showed termination on November 19 (before CNH knew of disability/FMLA), granted summary judgment for CNH, and Ennin appealed.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether Ennin preserved admissibility arguments for emails/texts	Ennin argued the communications show termination occurred Dec. 1 and should be admitted	CNH argued the communications were hearsay/unauthenticated and Ennin failed to respond in a surreply	Court: Ennin waived evidentiary challenge by not filing a surreply; exclusion affirmed
Race / national-origin discrimination	Ennin contends termination was motivated by race/national origin; points to alleged comparators	CNH: fired for legitimate nondiscriminatory reasons (Nov. 17 misconduct) and comparators aren’t similarly situated	Court: No admissible evidence of pretext; comparators improper; claims fail
Disability discrimination / failure to accommodate	Ennin: fired because of disability related to surgery	CNH: decision made Nov. 19, before disability or knowledge of surgery/FMLA	Court: Termination predates disability knowledge; claims fail
FMLA retaliation / interference	Ennin: fired for taking/obtaining FMLA leave	CNH: decision preceded knowledge of leave; also did not deny FMLA benefits	Court: Retaliation impossible given timing; no interference (leave granted)
§ 1985/1986 conspiracy and negligent supervision (state)	Ennin: managers conspired; negligent supervision led to deprivation of rights	CNH: these claims are derivative of federal violations that did not occur	Court: Derivative claims fail without underlying federal violations

Bonte v. U.S. Bank, N.A., 624 F.3d 461 (7th Cir. 2010) (failure to respond in district court can result in waiver)
Costello v. Grundon, 651 F.3d 614 (7th Cir. 2011) (no leave required to file surreply to preserve issue for appeal)
Smith v. Bray, 681 F.3d 888 (7th Cir. 2012) (permitting first-time appellate consideration where no meaningful opportunity to respond in district court)
Ortiz v. Werner Enters., Inc., 834 F.3d 760 (7th Cir. 2016) (standard for causation in discrimination cases)
Simpson v. Franciscan All., Inc., 827 F.3d 656 (7th Cir. 2016) (proper comparators must have similar disciplinary histories)
Carothers v. County of Cook, 808 F.3d 1140 (7th Cir. 2015) (timing element for disability discrimination)
Preddie v. Bartholomew Consol. Sch. Corp., 799 F.3d 806 (7th Cir. 2015) (FMLA retaliation requires causal link between leave and adverse action)
Curtis v. Costco Wholesale Corp., 807 F.3d 215 (7th Cir. 2015) (FMLA interference requires denial of entitled benefits)
Indianapolis Minority Contractors Ass'n v. Wiley, 187 F.3d 743 (7th Cir. 1999) (§ 1985 claims require underlying rights violation)
Grimes v. Smith, 776 F.2d 1359 (7th Cir. 1985) (liability under § 1986 is derivative of § 1985)