A federal judge ruled against an employer’s efforts to dismiss a disability leave lawsuit filed by an immunocompromised man who wanted to continue working from home for fear of contracting COVID-19 at work.

Gerald Gentile worked as a Weatherization Program Assessor for DuPage County in Illinois for 15 years, helping residents make their homes more energy-efficient. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, Mr. Gentile started telecommuting, an arrangement that ended a few months later, according to documents in Gentile v. County of Dupage, filed in U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, in Chicago.

Mr. Gentile, worried about the risks of catching COVID-19 because he was immunocompromised from a pulmonary embolism lung dysfunction, requested to continue telecommuting, which the county rejected. “After some back and forth, things quickly deteriorated,” documents state. “Instead of accommodating his requests, DuPage County abruptly fired him.”

Mr. Gentile sued the county under the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, and Illinois common law, over failing to accommodate and provide leave he was entitled to, and for retaliatory firing.

DuPage County moved to dismiss for failure to state a claim, which a federal district judge granted in part and denied in part.

In granting a claim on violations of the ADA and FMLA, the judge ruled that the case may proceed, writing that there exists some issues on accommodation Mr. Gentile was entitled to under federal law, and that the parties “can gather them in discovery.”

“At this point, the question is simply whether the complaint alleges enough to get to the next phase of the case. It does,” the judge wrote. On family and medical leave, the judge wrote “the complaint alleges enough to state a claim that Gentile qualified for leave under the FMLA.”

On the retaliation claim under Illinois law the judge wrote that “this case does not fit within those boundaries. The complaint does not allege anything about workers' compensation, or whistleblowing. The complaint does not allege that DuPage County fired Gentile for refusing to engage in illegal conduct, either.”