Why a Fox News producer’s sick day failed D.C. leave protections
A federal court sided with Fox News in a sick day termination lawsuit, ruling the employee failed to follow basic call-in procedures.
The decision, handed down on March 30, 2026 by Judge Amir H. Ali of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, granted summary judgment to Fox News, ending the case brought by Jason Donner, a former Capitol Hill producer who had worked at the network since 2010. Donner claimed Fox News violated the D.C. Accrued Sick and Safe Leave Act when it fired him in September 2022 after he missed a day of work due to illness. The court found that Donner never had a protected claim to begin with because he did not notify his supervisor in a timely manner.
The facts that emerged during discovery painted a picture that will feel uncomfortably familiar to anyone who has ever managed attendance issues. Donner knew on a Sunday evening that he was too ill to work the next day. He told his father as much. He did not, however, tell his supervisor, Nunu Japaridze, or anyone else at Fox News. When Monday morning came, he still did not reach out. A coworker texted him that morning about covering an event, and Donner responded shortly before 10:00 a.m., saying he was struggling with his depression. The coworker told him to contact Japaridze. Instead, Donner went back to sleep. He did not call his supervisor until sometime after 11:30 a.m. Japaridze told him to take the day off and take care of himself.
The trouble started the next day. When Japaridze called Donner to discuss his failure to give advance notice, the conversation went sideways. Donner became emotional and defensive, raised his voice, and asked Japaridze how she would feel if someone called her a lousy manager – then hung up. Japaridze reported the exchange to Washington bureau chief Bryan Boughton and senior vice president of human resources Nicolle Campa. The next morning, the three met with Donner and terminated him, citing multiple reasons including his missed work and lateness.
What makes this case instructive for HR professionals is how the court handled the notice question. The D.C. Sick Leave Act requires employees to notify their employer as early as possible before taking leave. Fox's own policy required employees to contact their supervisor as soon as possible and no later than two hours after their normal start time. The court found that Donner met neither standard. He knew the night before he would be out. He told a coworker about two hours before he told his supervisor. He had standing morning calls most days and, by his own account, a 10:00 a.m. start time listed in company software that day. None of that helped his case. The court was clear: meeting the outer two-hour limit of a company policy does not satisfy the separate obligation to call in as soon as possible.
Donner tried four different arguments to save his claim. He pointed to Japaridze's deposition testimony that she found his call-in appropriate at the time. He argued his father's testimony was taken out of context and that his father was confused about the sequence of events. He argued he technically called within two hours. He claimed his illness was an emergency under the statute. The court rejected all four, finding that the undisputed record left no room for a jury to conclude he gave timely notice.
The case had initially survived an earlier motion to dismiss based on Donner's original allegation that he called in sick before his workday started. The court at that stage found the claim plausible. Discovery, however, revealed a gap between what was alleged and what actually happened, and that gap proved fatal to the case.
For HR teams, the takeaway is narrow but concrete. Sick leave protections under D.C. law hinge on employees following the notice procedures baked into the statute and company policies. When they do not, and when the record clearly shows they did not, those protections may not apply. Employers who maintain clear, written call-in policies and apply them consistently are better positioned when these disputes arise.
