Summary
The United States District Court for the District of South Carolina adopts a magistrate judge’s Report and Recommendation and grants CSX Transportation, Inc.’s partial motion to dismiss. The court dismisses with prejudice the plaintiff’s claims concerning alleged miscalculation of Family and Medical Leave Act leave and the use of FMLA leave in determining Good Attendance Credit eligibility for lack of prosecution. The plaintiff’s FMLA unlawful termination claim remains pending.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether the district court should adopt the magistrate judge's Report and Recommendation in the absence of specific objections.
- Whether Plaintiff's FMLA miscalculation and attendance-policy claims should be dismissed with prejudice for lack of prosecution under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(b).
Holdings
- When no timely specific objections are filed to a magistrate judge's Report and Recommendation, the district court need only satisfy itself that there is no clear error on the face of the record before accepting the recommendation.
- Plaintiff's FMLA miscalculation claim and attendance-policy claim were properly dismissed with prejudice for lack of prosecution under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(b).
Key quotations
“in the absence of a timely filed objection, a district court need not conduct a de novo review, but instead must ‘only satisfy itself that there is no clear error on the face of the record in order to accept the recommendation.’”
“Plaintiff’s unlawful termination claim under the FMLA remains pending.”
Factual background
Plaintiff alleged that CSX miscalculated the amount of FMLA leave he had used, improperly used FMLA leave to disqualify employees from a Good Attendance Credit, and unlawfully terminated him. CSX filed a Partial Motion to Dismiss the miscalculation and attendance-policy claims. Plaintiff, though represented by counsel, never responded to the motion.
Procedural history
The Southern District of Georgia granted Plaintiff's motion to change venue and transferred the action to the District of South Carolina. Before transfer, CSX filed a Partial Motion to Dismiss Plaintiff's FMLA miscalculation and attendance-policy claims, but Plaintiff never responded. The magistrate judge recommended dismissal with prejudice for lack of prosecution under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(b); after finding no clear error and no timely specific objections, the district court adopted the recommendation and dismissed those claims while leaving the unlawful-termination claim pending.