UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT

┐ SEDRIC WARD, │ Plaintiff-Appellee, │ > No. 22-6054 │ v. │ │ SHELBY COUNTY, TENNESSEE, │ Defendant-Appellant. │ ┘ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee at Memphis. No. 2:20-cv-02407—Jon Phipps McCalla, District Judge.

Argued: October 18, 2023

Decided and Filed: April 11, 2024

Before: CLAY, KETHLEDGE, and MATHIS, Circuit Judges.

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COUNSEL ARGUED: R. Joseph Leibovich, Jasen McCoy Durrence, SHELBY COUNTY ATTORNEY’S OFFICE, Memphis, Tennessee, for Appellant. Thomas Jarrard, LAW OFFICE OF THOMAS JARRARD, PLLC, Spokane, Washington, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: R. Joseph Leibovich, Jasen McCoy Durrence, SHELBY COUNTY ATTORNEY’S OFFICE, Memphis, Tennessee, for Appellant. Thomas Jarrard, LAW OFFICE OF THOMAS JARRARD, PLLC, Robert W. Mitchell, Spokane, Washington, SaraEllen Hutchison, LAW OFFICE OF SARAELLEN HUTCHISON, PLLC, Tacoma, Washington, John Paul Schnapper-Casteras, SCHNAPPER- CASTERAS PLLC, Washington, D.C., for Appellee.

The court delivered a PER CURIAM opinion. CLAY, J. (pp. 8–16), delivered a separate dissenting opinion. No. 22-6054 Ward v. Shelby County Page 2

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OPINION _________________

PER CURIAM. Sedric Ward is an Army reservist who worked at the Shelby County Jail. The County fired Ward in 2015, but later entered into a settlement agreement in which, as to his termination, Ward expressly released “any and all claims whatsoever[.]” Yet Ward later brought this suit against the County, asserting a claim under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, 38 U.S.C. § 4301 et seq. (USERRA). The question here is whether the settlement agreement was effective to release Ward’s claim under the Act. We disagree with the district court’s reasoning on that question, so we vacate the court’s judgment in favor of Ward.

I.

Ward has been an Army reservist since 1987. In 1998, he began working for the Shelby County Jail, which is run by the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office. Like most reservists, Ward often took leave while deployed and to attend drills and training. Some of that leave was paid by the County. In 2013, the County conducted an audit that allegedly revealed potential instances where employees at the jail had taken paid leave of various kinds—medical, military, family— on fraudulent grounds. Ward was not among the employees whose leave was flagged as suspicious in that audit.

The Sheriff’s Office asked the General Investigations Bureau to conduct a criminal investigation, which—unlike the audit itself—focused solely on leave taken by servicemember employees. As part of that investigation, Agent Jason Valentine told Ward to produce documents supporting the validity of his paid leave during the past several years. Ward had difficulty retrieving those documents but eventually slid some under Valentine’s door. Yet the Bureau later issued a report in which it accused multiple s