In the unpublished Michigan Court of Appeals decision in Hephner v M&S Manufacturing (12-13-05), the Court affirmed the trial court's grant of summary disposition on the employee's lawsuit against the employer. The employee sought damages for allegedly being fired in retaliation for filing a workers' compensation claim. The employee had been terminated pursuant to the employer's neutral policy of automatically terminating all employees after 12 months of continuous medical leave, as provided in the employer's employee handbook. The employee claimed that the policy was a pretext for firing seriously injured workers. The Court found that the employee had failed to provide any evidence of a causal connection between his filing for workers' compensation benefits and his termination. The Court also found that there was no evidence that the filing of the workers' compensation claim played a role in the employer's decision to terminate the employee's employment. The employee also argued that a ""do not hire"" note placed in his personnel file when he was terminated constituted retaliation for filing a workers' compensation claim. The Court found that the employee had failed to present any evidence showing a causal connection between the ""do not rehire"" note and the workers' compensation claim. Also, because the empoyee had not yet been released to work and in fact never asked to be rehired, the Court held that no injury had yet occurred and the claim was not ripe for review. SUMMARY: Neutral employment policies, if applied uniformly without exceptions, will not be held to be workers' compensation retaliation. 12-13-05