US bank employee fired for taking leave to care for dying daughter who had cancer, lawsuit says

A Michigan bank employee has claimed that she was fired for taking leaves to care for her daughter, who was battling breast cancer. Terri Estepp, who worked at Huntington Bank for 30 years, had to use four of her 12 weeks of Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) after she ran out of her paid leaves while tending to Samantha, according to WZZM 13.

Michigan mom fired for taking leave to take care of dying daughter

Estepp’s daughter was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer while living in California in April 2023. Her condition worsened over time, and she died in 2024 at the age of 31. The former Huntington Bank exhausted all her vacation days and paid leave to care for her daughter.

As she wanted to be with her daughter while she underwent treatment, Estepp resorted to the federal law that allows employees to take job-protected, unpaid leave for medical and family reasons. Upon returning to work, she asked the management for more time off.

However, she was fired the same day despite her years of dedicated service to the Detroit bank. “I was in complete shock. I was not ready for anything like this,” Estepp said.

“I requested medical leave or Family Medical Leave Act. My previous boss had recommended that I do that, just in case I needed to take any spur-the-moment time off to care for my daughter,” she added.

What hurt Estepp more than losing her job was the fact that Samantha blamed herself. “It really hurt her. She started to cry on the phone. She said, ‘Mom, you lost your job because of me,’” the mother said of her daughter.

“Within ten days of them letting me go, my daughter passed away,” she told the outlet. Estepp was not given a reason for being let go. Her attorney, Sarah Prescott, filed a lawsuit against the bank for firing the grieving mother for using FMLA.

“She represented through her bank, 6,000 plus different businesses, families at any given time,” Prescott said, per the outlet. Meanwhile, the bank claimed that her firing was “unrelated to an FMLA leave of absence,” per Click on Detroit.