Recommending Chicken Noodle Soup for Chest Pain Spurs FMLA Interference Lawsuit

Chattanooga, TN (WorkersCompensation.com) – It’s generally understood that eating chicken soup is not a viable replacement for emergency medical intervention when one is on the brink of heart failure.

Still, according to the children of a deceased packing plant worker in Heard v. Westrock Company, No. 1:22-cv-132 (E.D. Tenn. 12/06/22), that’s what their father’s supervisor urged him to do when he complained of chest pain and asked for permission to get medical treatment. 

In fact, according to the children, the supervisor discouraged their father from going to a hospital and instead twice urged the employee to seek, not medical care, but the soup from a break room vending machine. This was despite the fact that the employee had reportedly taken FMLA leave in the past due to a heart condition while working for the company.

After finishing the soup, and continuing to experience pain, the worker, afraid of being disciplined or losing his job, went back to work. He allegedly worked in a facility with extremely hot conditions, where the temperature could reach 120 degrees.

Once on the work floor, the employee collapsed. He was taken to the hospital and died shortly thereafter. The cause of death was not lack of chicken noodle soup, but, according to the medical examiner, hypertensive cardiovascular disease.

The supervisor, for his part, was subsequently promoted to building manager.

The employee’s children sued the company for FMLA interference. The company defended itself by pointing out that the worked didn’t request or notify it that he was asking for FMLA leave.

The court explained that to invoke the protection of FMLA, an employee must provide notice and a qualifying reason for requesting leave. However, the employee does not have to expressly assert his right to take leave under the FMLA. The employee merely must give the employer enough information for the employer to reasonably conclude that an event described in the FMLA has occurred. 

Here, the court held, the children stated a plausible claim for FMLA interference, including the notice element of their claim. 

In reaching that conclusion, the court pointed out that the decedent had previously obtained an authorization for FMLA-protected leave for his heart condition, which is the FMLA-eligible serious health condition that flared up on the night of his death. 

The court also stated that according to the complaint, the employee advised his supervisor that he had a serious health concern and that he felt he needed to go directly to the hospital. "In other words, the decedent specifically informed [the supervisor] … of his inability to perform his job at the moment due to his serious health condition,” the court wrote.

The court also observed that when the employee informed the supervisor of his condition, according to the children, the supervisor said the employee could be subject to discipline consisting of being assessed an attendance point, which could consequently lead to the employee’s termination. Threatening to discipline an employee for seeking FMLA leave to which the employee is clearly entitled, the court stated, qualifies as FMLA interference 

The court denied the company’s motion to dismiss.

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