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Law360 (August 10, 2020, 3:39 PM EDT ) A federal judge on Monday voiced skepticism over a discrimination suit filed by a Massachusetts engineer who was fired for refusing to come into the office during the coronavirus pandemic, calling the complaint "bare-bones."
U.S. Magistrate Judge Marianne B. Bowler weighed arguments by the employer, CGIT Systems Inc., to dismiss claims that it discriminated against Yuyi Lin when it declined his request to work from home and then fired him when he didn't show up. Lin has said he has high blood pressure and was also worried about catching the virus in the workplace and passing it to his elderly mother, with whom he lives.
"The complaint is about as bare-bones as you can be," the judge said of the 10-page filing, which brings claims for disability, age, and race or national origin discrimination, as well as retaliation.
CGIT's attorney, John E. DeWick of Arrowood LLP, told the court that Lin's suit failed to connect his firing to those protected categories.
But an attorney for Lin, Mark D. Szal of Szal Law Group LLC, countered that his client isn't required to plead a full case at this early stage.
"Defense counsel is asking a lot of the plaintiff at this stage of the litigation to know what was behind the decision to terminate a long-tenured minority, older employee merely for asking to work from home for one additional week," Szal said.
Lin, a senior engineer, filed the suit in June. He says he began working for Medway, Massachusetts-based CGIT, a welding and specialty electrical equipment company, in 2005.
Lin claims CGIT initially had all employees work remotely in light of the pandemic, but then began bringing workers back to the office. He says he asked to work from home when he learned that the company allegedly lacked safety measures and that sick workers were still coming in.
The engineer says CGIT downplayed the impact of the novel coronavirus, with a human resources manager at one point telling employees in an email that the virus is "not a superbug" and that a vaccine would be developed and "life will go on."
Days after Lin's March 31 termination, a CGIT employee tested positive for the virus, and later the wife of an employee, according to the complaint. On April 3, all employees were again ordered to work from home, the suit says.
Szal said Monday that the company had granted remote-work requests from two similarly situated older workers.
"The exact concerns he was worried about came to light," Szal said. "Everyone else was allowed to work from home and he was still terminated."
CGIT argued in its motion to dismiss the three discrimination counts that Lin had abandoned his job after being denied the remote-work request and using up his sick and vacation time. The company said the lawsuit fails to point to how it discriminated against Lin.
Lin is represented by Mark D. Szal of Szal Law Group LLC.
CGIT Systems is represented by John E. DeWick of Arrowood LLP.
The case is Lin v. CGIT Systems Inc., case number 1:20-cv-11051, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
--Additional reporting by Chris Villani. Editing by Bruce Goldman.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
