United States Seventh Circuit

In a Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) suit by an employee terminated for excessive absenteeism, summary judgment for defendants is affirmed where: 1) defendant-city and defendant-county, though they had initially incorporated defendant-employer, were not "joint employers" with defendant-employer for FMLA purposes because they exercised no control over plaintiff's employment; 2) defendant-employer alone was too small to qualify as an employer under FMLA; and 3) there was no evidence to demonstrate that defendant-city and defendant-county had deliberately organized defendant-employer as a smaller entity for the purpose of avoiding FMLA obligations.

Appellate Information

• Argued 11/06/2007
• Decided 07/31/2008
• Published 07/31/2008

Judges

• ROVNER, Circuit Judge., Before FLAUM, KANNE, and ROVNER, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Seventh Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• John A. Slevin (argued), Vonachen, Lawless, Trager & Slevin, Peoria, IL, for Plaintiff-Appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• Patrick Murphey (argued), Miller, Hall & Triggs, Peoria, IL, Karen L. Kendall, Craig L. Unrath (argued), Heyl, Royster, Voelker & Allen, Peoria, IL, for Defendants-Appellees.