Dept. of Rehab. & Corr

FMLA Disability Discrimination, 4112.02- Plaintiff, a former corrections officer for defendant, brought claims after defendant terminated him for performance and attendance issues. The court found defendant established legitimate, nondiscriminatory reasons for plaintiff's termination and that defendant's reasons for plaintiff's termination were not pretextual. The court further found that defendant did not deny or interfere with plaintiff's FMLA benefits and that plaintiff could not establish a causal connection between the exercise of his FMLA rights and his termination. The court granted defendant summary judgment on all of plaintiff's claims.

Negligence, Wrongful Death- An inmate, in defendant's custody who initiated a fight, died after being stabbed by the inmate with whom he fought. In overruling plaintiff's objections to the magistrate's decision, which recommended judgment in favor of defendant, the court found defendant lacked notice of threats or danger to the decedent. The court also found no error in the magistrate's determination that the decedent's contributory negligence in initiating the fight outweighed any potential negligence on the part of defendant. The court adopted the magistrate's decision and granted judgment to defendant.

Negligence bifurcated trial inmate. The magistrate determined that defendant did not have sufficient notice to be liable for plaintiff's injuries from the March 25, 2011 attack, and plaintiff's contention that he told ODRC employees that his presence at LCI posed a danger to him was belied by other evidence and lacked credibility. Further, while prison officials knew of plaintiff's work as an informant, that knowledge alone did not equate to notice of an impending attack on plaintiff, and they were sensitive to keeping plaintiff safe. The magistrate recommended judgment in favor of defendant.