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Abstract
The Family Medical Leave Act provides an "eligible employee" with a total of 12 work-weeks of leave during any 12-month period because of a serious health condition. The parties in Bellum v. PCE Constructors Inc. (2005) did not dispute that Bellum's heart problems qualified as a "serious health condition." What they did dispute, however, was whether Bellum was an "eligible employee." PCE maintained that Bellum fell within an exception to the definition of eligible employee: any employee of an employer who is employed at a worksite at which such employer employs less than 50 employees if the total number of employees employed by the employer within 75 miles of that worksite is less than 50. This exception applied, PCE contended, because its headquarters, as measured over public roads, was more than 75 miles from the Fernwood worksite. Bellum countered that the exception did not apply because the linear distance, i.e., "as the crow flies," between Fernwood and PCE's Baton Rouge headquarters was less than 70 miles. The appellate court in this case rejected Bellum's arguments.