North Carolina Lawyers Weekly
The North Carolina Court of Appeals has ordered that this opinion be withdrawn.
Editor’s Note: A reader pointed out some confusion in last week’s digest of Fatta v. M & M Properties Management, Inc. With thanks to the reader, here is a clarification:
Fatta v. M & M Properties Management, Inc. (Lawyers Weekly No. 12-07-0421, 12 pp.) (Wanda G. Bryant, J.) Appealed from Iredell County Superior Court. (Christopher M. Collier, J.) N.C. App.
Holding: Even though plaintiff was fired shortly after he notified his supervisor that he might be filing a workers’ compensation claim, mere temporal proximity was insufficient to establish that retaliatory motive was a substantial factor in defendant’s decision to terminate plaintiff. In plaintiff’s termination letter, defendant stated that plaintiff’s lack of demonstrated leadership, reflected through his tardiness during training, lack of demonstrated initiative, dealings with challenging customers, phone skills, and inability to embrace defendant’s concepts versus trying to incorporate aspects of full service hotels, was the reason supporting plaintiff’s termination.
Because plaintiff cannot establish the prima facie elements of a wrongful discharge or Retaliatory Employment Discrimination Act claim, we affirm the trial court’s order granting defendant’s motion for summary judgment.
