Alaska Employment Law

In a Ninth Circuit opinion published this morning, the issue was:

Whether the FMLA allows a plaintiff to recover damages for absences from work [i.e., lost wages] that were caused by an emotional condition that itself resulted from the employer’s wrongful denial of FMLA leave.

The 9th Circuit agreed with prevailing caselaw that an FMLA plaintiff may not recover emotional distress damages, but nonetheless affirmed damages for this plaintiff:

Here, the jury’s verdict reflects that Farrell was not awarded FMLA damages for emotional distress, but rather “for days of work that he missed because of stress or other mental problems resulting from the wrongful denial of FMLA leave.” (Emphasis added). Unlike emotional distress, which requires valuating an intangible, see, e.g. , [Brumbalough v. Camelot Care Ctrs., Inc., 427 F.3d 996, 1007-08 (6th Cir. 2005)], this calculation can easily be quantified, in accordance with [29 U.S.C. § 2617], as an “actual monetary loss[ ],” Nev. Dep’t of Human Res. v. Hibbs, 538 U.S. 721, 740 (2003), by determining the wages Farrell would have earned on the days he could have worked, but was unable to do so because of TriMet’s violation.

Farrell v. Tri-County Metropolitan Transp. Dist., 2008 WL _______ (9th Cir. June 27, 2008)