He'd been told he was getting a bonus - then came the termination call
A longtime GEICO field supervisor with cancer says the insurer fired him days after receiving his request to stop driving at night.
The former supervisor sued Government Employees Insurance Company - the auto insurer known as GEICO - in federal court in Indianapolis on September 2, claiming it ended his employment because of his disability, his request for a workplace adjustment, and his use of medical leave.
He had been with GEICO since 1998, overseeing field associates in Indiana, according to the complaint. He says he routinely met or beat his targets, earning productivity ratings of four or five out of five.
The filing says he has metastatic melanoma - a serious skin cancer that had spread, with brain involvement - along with cataracts. Since about 2021 he had taken intermittent leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act, the federal law that protects a worker's job while they take time off for a serious illness.
The heart of the complaint is a single day and the month that followed. On January 13, 2026, he asked to avoid night driving because cataracts brought on by his steroid treatment had impaired his night vision, the complaint states. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, that kind of request is called a reasonable accommodation - a workplace adjustment that lets an employee keep doing the core parts of the job. His doctor sent supporting paperwork, the filing says, and he submitted his yearly FMLA recertification the same day.
GEICO's outside leave administrator passed the accommodation request to the company around February 8, according to the complaint. Five days later, GEICO fired him.
For HR teams, the sequence raises a familiar compliance question. The supervisor alleges GEICO never held the back-and-forth the ADA calls the interactive process - no follow-up questions, no alternative offer, no decision on his request before the termination call.
He says the warning signs went back further. A performance improvement plan from November 2024 “expressly referenced” his FMLA absences as having hurt his performance, the complaint states. He says he raised the issue with human resources and got nowhere.
The reasons for the firing shifted, according to the filing. On the termination call, GEICO told him he had fallen below minimum standards in the second half of 2025 and failed a “leadership” measure worth twenty percent of his review. He says no one had ever coached him on leadership or warned him it was a problem. His termination letter then pointed to his performance across all of 2025 - even though, he says, GEICO had already confirmed he would receive a bonus for that year.
After he was gone, his FMLA leave was approved retroactively, the complaint states. He argues that shows the absences counted against him were protected all along. He also claims he was the only field supervisor GEICO let go company-wide at the time.
His suit brings three claims under the ADA - discrimination, failure to accommodate, and retaliation - and two under the FMLA, for interference and retaliation. He is seeking back pay, lost benefits, compensatory and punitive damages, and either his job back or front pay to cover future lost earnings.
None of the allegations have been tested, and no court has ruled.
