Summary judgment for Cigna Health and Life Insurance Company was granted in a suit filed by a former employee who was terminated after helping his wife sue the insurance carrier.
U.S District Judge Virginia M. Hernandez ruled on the case in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida’s Tampa Division last month.
While Pedro Perez accused Cigna of firing him in retaliation to assisting his wife in filing her wrongful termination suit against the same company, Judge Hernandez sided with Cigna.
“The court agrees with Cigna that, at numerous points in his response to Cigna’s statement of material facts and his recitation of additional material facts, Perez fails to provide pinpoint citations – instead citing to an exhibit in its entirety,” wrote Judge Hernandez.
Perez also failed to prove that the evidence presented was admissible. For example, most of Perez’s witnesses reside in Connecticut, which is outside of the court’s jurisdiction for subpoenas.
While Perez showed that he participated in protected activity (i.e. submitting claims through Cigna’s internal platform), and even proved that he suffered adverse employment, he didn’t have evidence that there was a connection between him helping his wife sue Cigna, and his termination; especially because he never told his supervisor his wife was suing Cigna for discrimination.
“Evidence supports that [Perez’s supervisor] herself made the decision to terminate Perez because of his failure to work that week,” Judge Hernandez wrote. “Perez has not shown that a genuine issue of material fact exists as to the causation of his termination.”
Judge Hernandez said it’s not the court’s responsibility to challenge Cigna’s decision. Instead, its job is to evaluate if the employer’s move was because of retaliation, which Perez failed to prove.
Perez began working for Cigna as a senior business analyst in Connecticut August 2014. Two years later, he was transferred and began working at home in Tampa, Fl. His wife, who also worked for Cigna, was fired in July 2017, and she went to arbitration over the matter, claiming Cigna retaliated and racially discriminated against her, violating Title VII. Hernandez went on spousal leave to help his wife, Glenda, before Cigna was awarded summary judgment.
After receiving verbal and written discipline, Perez filed a complaint through the company’s internal database, Speak Easy, claiming he was a victim of retaliation because he helped his wife.
Still, in April 2018 Perez took more time off to handle “personal issues," and said he was deposed in his wife’s case as she challenged the summary judgment for Cigna from arbitration, according to the lawsuit. The following August, he helped his wife retain a process server to serve Cigna the motion to vacate the award in her case.
Things went left even further on Aug. 17, 2018 when Perez claimed he didn’t have network connection to complete his job at home. After the IT team couldn’t get a hold of him, he ended up working only one hour that week, and didn’t properly communicate amid his absence, leading to his termination. He later filed the Title VI lawsuit, and also named the Florida Civil Rights Act in his claim.