The federal appellate court that covers Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina and South Carolina recently upheld Nexstar Media, Inc.’s termination of an employee after she gave birth to twins and had a pregnancy-related surgery.
Account Executive Leanna Coffman had pre-birth complications that placed her on bedrest. She was given 8 weeks of leave before her due date that was not tracked as FMLA leave. Nexstar then gave her the full 12 weeks of FMLA leave after her babies’ birth. While on leave, she had additional complications that led to surgery. She sought additional time off and hinted at another surgery in the future. When a company Human Resources professional asked Coffman when she could return, she asked to “not be contacted again” while she was unable to work and provided her attorney’s contact information.
Nexstar then sent her a formal letter recounting her extensive time off and asking, again, when she could return. She answered that she had not been released to work. Nexstar then terminated her, three months after her last day of FMLA leave.
Coffman brought disability discrimination claims under West Virginia’s state EEO law and an FMLA retaliatory discharge claim. All claims were found to be without merit and the 4th Circuit upheld the district court’s grant of summary judgment.
It was not disputed that Coffman was suffering from a “disability” under applicable law. The court found, however, that Coffman’s request for additional leave–when she admitted she could not work and had no release date–amounted to her seeking “indefinite leave,” which has long been held by numerous courts to be unreasonable under the federal Americans With Disabilities Act. Employers only have an obligation to provide reasonable accommodations; not unreasonable ones. The court also emphasized that Nexstar had given her 8 weeks off before her due date, then 12 weeks of FMLA leave, and finally 3 more months off past her FMLA leave. Her FMLA retaliation claim was rejected because she could not establish any causal link between her protected leave and her termination. The 3-month period from her last day of FMLA and her separation was insufficient to demonstrate that required link.
This case is certainly helpful to employers, although they should still use serious caution in any similar situation. A termination of a recently-pregnant employee who recently took FMLA leave, had surgery, and is actively experiencing a pregnancy-related medical disability carries high legal risk and must be carefully reviewed in advance. (Coffman v. Nexstar Media, Inc., No. 23-2253 (4th Cir. July 22, 2025)).