Terry Tilley v. Kalamazoo County Road Comm'n, 777 F.3d 303

Background

Tilley, a 59-year-old Road Commission employee since 1993, had escalating conflicts with his supervisor Bartholomew in 2010–2011 involving missed/contested assignments and workplace incidents.
Bartholomew suspended Tilley on July 20, 2011, set final deadlines for three tasks (employee reprimands, a site-incident summary, and an updated job description), and warned that further deficiencies could lead to termination.
Tilley submitted reprimands by July 28 (disputed as deficient), delivered the incident summary to an intermediary before the July 29 deadline (but it reached Bartholomew Aug. 3), and did not finish the job description by Aug. 1 because he sought emergency medical care that day.
The Road Commission sent FMLA paperwork on Aug. 9, indicating Tilley was “eligible” and instructing him to obtain medical certification; on Aug. 12 it terminated him for failing to meet deadlines.
Tilley sued alleging ELCRA age discrimination and FMLA interference/retaliation; the district court granted summary judgment for the Road Commission on all claims.
On appeal the Sixth Circuit affirmed summary judgment on the ELCRA claim but reversed summary judgment on the FMLA claims, holding a factual dispute existed on equitable estoppel regarding FMLA eligibility.

Issues

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
ELCRA age discrimination (prima facie 4th element)	Tilley argued circumstantial evidence and alleged pattern of age-based termination showed discrimination without direct replacement by younger worker	Road Commission argued Tilley was not replaced by a younger worker and presented no similarly situated younger employees treated more favorably	Court held Tilley failed to satisfy the 4th McDonnell Douglas element; summary judgment affirmed on ELCRA claim
FMLA eligibility (50/75 employee threshold)	Tilley argued public employees are not subject to the 50/75 rule or disputed the Road Commission’s employee count at the time he sought leave	Road Commission argued the statutory/regulatory 50/75 threshold applies to public agencies and it employed fewer than 50 within 75 miles when Tilley sought leave	Court held the 50/75 threshold applies to public employers and Tilley failed to show the Road Commission met it at the time of his leave request; as a matter of law he was not an “eligible employee”
Equitable estoppel re: FMLA eligibility	Tilley argued the Personnel Manual unambiguously stated full-time employees with 1,250 hours are covered, he reasonably relied on that, and he was detrimentally harmed by relying on it	Road Commission argued handbook language and regulatory notices do not support estoppel and that Tilley’s reliance (during a medical emergency) was unreasonable	Court held Tilley produced sufficient evidence on misrepresentation, reasonable reliance (sworn affidavit), and detriment (termination) to create a material factual dispute; summary judgment reversed on FMLA claims and remanded
Remedy and further proceedings	N/A (appellant seeks trial on FMLA claims)	N/A (defendant may renew other defenses)	Court remanded for further proceedings; declined to resolve other summary-judgment arguments in the first instance

Key Cases Cited

McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792 (1973) (framework for burden-shifting in discrimination cases)
Geiger v. Tower Auto., 579 F.3d 614 (6th Cir. 2009) (applying ADEA/ELCRA circumstantial-evidence analysis)
Dobrowski v. Jay Dee Contractors, Inc., 571 F.3d 551 (6th Cir. 2009) (elements for equitable estoppel on FMLA eligibility)
Mendel v. City of Gibraltar, 727 F.3d 565 (6th Cir. 2013) (applying the FMLA 50/75-employee threshold to public-agency employees)
Fain v. Wayne County Auditor’s Office, 388 F.3d 257 (7th Cir. 2004) (holding public-agency employees cannot obtain FMLA benefits unless employer meets 50/75 threshold)
Pearle Vision, Inc. v. 251 F.3d 1132 (7th Cir. 2001) (interpretation of handbook language bearing on employee expectations of FMLA coverage)