Medtronic Executive in Michigan Lacks Minnesota Bias Claim (1)

A fired Medtronic USA Inc. senior director is unable to sue the company for disability discrimination under Minnesota law because she wasn’t physically present in the state for almost two years prior to her termination, the Eighth Circuit ruled Wednesday.

That means she wasn’t an “employee” under the Minnesota Human Rights Act, a unanimous panel said, affirming a lower court. The state legislature in 1987 defined employee under the MHRA as someone who resides or works in Minnesota, but it didn’t separately define “works” or “in,” the panel said.

But those terms can be easily defined by looking to ...