Michigan woman claims she was fired for taking time off to care for dying daughter
HOWELL, Mich. (CBS DETROIT) — A woman is suing her former employer, Huntington Bank in Howell, after she says she was fired for taking a leave of absence to take care of her dying daughter.
Just days after losing a job she was repeatedly praised for in performance reviews, Terri Estepp lost her only daughter, Samantha, to cancer.
"It was an incredible shock," said Sarah Prescott, an attorney representing Estepp in her federal lawsuit against her former employer, Huntington Bank.
In 2024, Estepp took sick days and a Family and Medical Leave of Absence to care for her daughter, who was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer.
"It's a law that you have to do all the right paperwork and ask on time. Terri had done all of that," said Prescott.
But just days after returning to work, Estepp claims her boss told her they were letting her go.
"She walks down the line, hugging her staff, who literally two months before she'd been praised for being such a great leader and inspiration to them, and she walks out the door," Prescott said.
The federal lawsuit filed this week in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan claims Estepp had repeated positive work reviews from everyone she worked with, and as a manager, she claims she led the Howell branch to be one of Huntington's most successful branches in the country.
Attorney Jon Marko said that defense attorneys for corporations often advise against terminating an employee after utilizing FMLA, but there's no hard and fast rule against it.
"FMLA is a federal law. It's a right of all employees, and an employer cannot punish you or retaliate against you," Marko said. "Best employer practices is you better have a really good reason if somebody comes back from FMLA to terminate them right away.
"Let's say an employee comes back from FMLA and they punch their coworker in the face because they're having a bad day. As a good employer, you're probably going to be able to easily terminate and justify that termination. But if somebody comes back from work from FMLA and a day later they're fired for no really good reason, that employer is going to have a problem."
Huntington Bank issued the following statement regarding the lawsuit.
"While Huntington Bank does not comment on active litigation, we are committed to compliance with all employment laws, including the Family and Medical Leave Act, and we acted appropriately in this matter."
