Jim and Carrie Carroll at Carroll and Carroll, P.C. represent the injured people of Pennsylvania and New York in Bradford, Sullivan, Tioga, Susquehanna, and Chemung counties in personal injury, premises liability, slip and fall, automobile accident and workers’ compensation cases Jim and Carrie Carroll at Carroll and Carroll, P.C. represent the injured people of Pennsylvania and New York in Bradford, Sullivan, Tioga, Susquehanna, and Chemung counties in personal injury, premises liability, slip and fall, automobile accident and workers’ compensation cases
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    6/3/2008
    James R. Carroll, Jr., Esquire
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    3rd Circuit: Woman Cannot Be Fired for Having Abortion

    From Law.com:

    A woman who has an abortion cannot be fired for doing so because the federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act also protects the decision to terminate a pregnancy, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled in a case of first impression.

    The decision by a unanimous three-judge panel in Doe v. CARS Protection Plus Inc. revives a suit brought by a woman who claims she opted to have an abortion after tests showed that her baby had severe deformities and that she was fired three days later -- the day she attended the funeral for the baby.

    In the lower court, U.S. District Judge Maurice B. Cohill Jr. granted summary judgment for the defendant, finding that the plaintiff -- who is referred to in court papers only as "Jane Doe" -- failed to show that her firing was connected to her abortion decision.

    The 3rd Circuit disagreed, finding that Doe's boss remarked that "she didn't want to take responsibility," and that Cohill erred in labeling it a "stray remark" because a jury could infer from that statement that Doe's abortion was a factor in the decision to fire her.

    Cohill also found that Doe could not show that her employer's stated reason for firing her was a "pretext" for discrimination.

    A lawyer for CARS contended that Doe had "abandoned" her job, because she failed to notify the company on a daily basis of her intention to take sick or vacation leave.

    But Doe's lawyer, Gary M. Davis of Pittsburgh, insisted that his client's husband had telephoned on a Friday, the day of the abortion, he notified the company that his wife would be taking one more sick day and would use vacation time to take off the following week.


    Labels: case law wrongful termination


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