An employee should have a trial on claims that she was terminated due to her age and sex in violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (Title VII).

The employee had entered into a two-year employment agreement to serve as Vice President of New Business Development, and was required to provide written notice of her plan to leave the company at least thirty days before her scheduled departure. She had a contentious relationship and difficulty communicating with her immediate supervisor, who reassigned management of the sales department to a younger male employee at one point. During a discussion on scheduling a meeting, a conflict arose and the employee asked her supervisor several times if he wanted her to resign. He said no at first, and admitted to subsequently saying that she should think about retiring. The company treated this conversation as a resignation, even though the employee never explicitly resigned. In concluding that the lower court erred in dismissing the case and remanding the matter for trial, the Third Court reasoned that a genuine issue of material fact existed regarding whether the conversation constituted a resignation where the employee never submitted a resignation letter and no one at the company followed up to confirm that she had in fact resigned. Read more.