An appellate court has reinstated a religious discrimination lawsuit filed by a Seventh-day Adventist school bus driver, who contended he was fired after his employer refused to accommodate his religious requirement to leave early on certain Fridays.

According to Wednesday’s ruling by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans in Robert E. Antoine v. First Student Inc., Mr. Antoine had worked without any problems for the Cincinnati-based company for the 2008-2009 school year.

During the 2009-2010 school year, however, he was given a route that would have required him to work after sundown for eight Fridays between Nov. 6, 2009, and Jan. 29, 2010, in violation of his religion’s requirement to honor his Sabbath, which begins at sundown Friday and ends at sundown Saturday.

There is conflicting information as to what was decided at a meeting over the issue, with Mr. Antoine asserting he was told the company would find a replacement driver for him during Friday afternoons, and the company saying it told Mr. Antoine he had to find a replacement driver on his own, according to the ruling.

There was also disagreement as to whether the company attempted to obtain permission from the union for a voluntary shift swap, according to the ruling.

Mr. Antoine did not appear for work on the Fridays that would have entailed his working after sundown, and he was terminated by the company for excessive absenteeism on Jan. 15, 2010. “First Student was aware of the limited duration of Antoine’s religious conflict,” said the ruling.

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Mr. Antoine filed a lawsuit against the company in federal district court in New Orleans in November 2010, and in November 2011 a magistrate judge granted summary judgment to First Student, holding the company had satisfied its burden of showing it had reasonably accommodated Mr. Antoine.

“We conclude, however, that summary judgment is not appropriate at this stage of the litigation because there are genuine disputes of material fact regarding the very nature of the purported accommodation in this case,” said the three-judge panel’s unanimous ruling, citing the disagreements about arranging a voluntary shift swap and the existence of a preliminary agreement by the local union to consider a side agreement permitting a voluntary shift swap in Mr. Antoine’s case.

The case was remanded for further proceedings.

In January, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reached a $25,000 settlement of a religious discrimination suit filed against a Birmingham, Ala.-based manufacturing company that allegedly refused to hire a Seventh-day Adventist who said he could not work between sundown Friday and sundown Saturday.