"[T]he executive was placed on 'garden leave,' in other words, relieved of all responsibilities and told to stay home.... The court found that the executive had sufficiently alleged that the employer had manipulated the date of termination with the specific intent of depriving the employee of the severance benefits to which he would otherwise have been entitled.... The court said that there could be benign reasons why the company would pay the employee for 30 days after stripping the employee of all responsibilities but that there was also the possibility that the employer had improper motives for the timing of the employment termination given the fact that the garden leave saved the employer over $700,000 in severance pay." [Kirby v. Frontier Medex, No. ELH-13-00012 (D.C. Md. Oct. 30, 2013)]  MORE >>