A federal appeals court has reinstated the age discrimination lawsuit filed by a former Connecticut police department clerk in a case that stemmed from a missing can of biscuit dough.

Dyanna L. Green, a clerk in the East Haven Police Department’s records division, was 58 in 2012 when the department hired a 30-year-old clerk, and she was given a new supervisor, according to Tuesday’s ruling by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York in Dyanna L. Green v. Town of East Haven.

Ms. Green said the new supervisor subjected her to public criticism, and her younger colleague was given more desirable work assignments.

In December 2014, Ms. Green found a canister of buttermilk biscuit dough in the police department’s kitchen refrigerator that she said she took, intending to take home to bake and return to the department, according to the ruling.

When a memo was issued about the can, Ms. Green attempted to return it, only to find the refrigerator sealed with yellow “crime scene” tape.

The incident led to her being charged with violating the department’s code of conduct policy and she was scheduled for a disciplinary hearing.  On the advice of her union representative, she resigned instead.

She then filed suit in U.S. District Court in Hartford, charging violations of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 and state law.  The district court granted the town summary judgment dismissing the case, concluding Ms. Green had failed to make out a prima facie case of any adverse employment action because she had chosen to retire rather than attend the hearing.

The ruling was overturned by a unanimous three-judge appeals court panel. The district court inferred “that a reasonable person in Green’s shoes would not have felt compelled to resign in order to avoid termination” and that she had elected on her own to resign, said the ruling.

But, said the court, “The record as whole, viewed in the light most favorable to Green, precluded the grant of summary judgment. There was evidence that Ms. Green received advice from knowledgeable persons the hearing would “almost certainly” result in her termination, said the ruling.

“If this case were tried, a factfinder, applying the correct legal standard to the issue of constructive discharge, could rationally find that an employee in Green’s shoes would have felt compelled to submit her resignation statement that she was retiring, rather than face nearly certain termination,” said the ruling, in reinstating Ms. Green’s ADEA and state law claims and remanding the case for further proceedings.

Attorneys in the case could not be reached for comment.

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC agreed to pay $11.6 million to settle charges this month that it had discriminated against older applicants who unsuccessfully applied for associate positions in the firm’s tax or assurance lines of business.