In Buckmaster v. The National Railroad Passenger Corp. d/b/a Amtrak, the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland addressed whether an employee had offered any evidence of discrimination or retaliation beyond his own speculative beliefs and personal disagreement with his employer’s legitimate business reason for terminating his employment. Finding no such evidence in the record, the court granted the employer’s motion for summary judgment on April 11, 2022, dismissing the employee’s claims of disability discrimination, interference under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), failure to accommodate a disability, and retaliation for requesting medical leave and reporting disability discrimination.
While working for Amtrak as a substation electrician, Keith Buckmaster was in a car accident and suffered back, neck, and knee injuries. Due to lingering pain, Buckmaster requested and was reassigned to a less physically demanding role. Buckmaster worked in this new position until July 2015, when he applied for and secured a position as a senior technical trainer.
In March 2017, Buckmaster began exhibiting performance issues that continued to decline despite receiving a counseling letter. On May 16, 2017, Amtrak provided Buckmaster with a final warning, informing him that failure to improve could result in further disciplinary action, including the termination of his employment. On August 1, 2017, the director of training and development for the engineering...
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