AUBURN – A Hebron man is suing the owners of Poland Spring Corp. claiming he was harassed then fired for taking time off for medical problems.

John Crosby worked for 15 years at Poland Spring at the company’s local manufacturing plant.

In 2003, Crosby was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. He left work as a forklift operator on an approved Family Medical Leave Act absence, then returned to work. On July 19, 2004, he was approved for intermittent FMLA leave because of his cancer. He had to have regular doctor visits and needed medical monitoring, a suit filed last week in Androscoggin County Superior Court said.

In December 2005, Chris McKenna became Crosby’s supervisor at the Auburn plant and started commenting on Crosby’s need for medical leave, wrote Crosby’s attorneys, Adam Taylor and Kathryn Rowen of Portland.

“McKenna repeatedly taunted Mr. Crosby about his need for FMLA leave, calling him his ‘FMLA child,'” Crosby’s attorneys wrote.

Poland Spring and parent-company Nestle Waters America, Inc. violated the Maine Human Rights Act and the Maine Family Leave Law. They also violated the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the suit says.

When Crosby handed McKenna doctors’ notes, he rolled his eyes and made faces, the suit says.

In December 2006, Crosby told McKenna he needed to file for more time off for a new medical condition.

McKenna “shook his head and closed his office door in Mr. Crosby’s face,” the suit says. “Mr. McKenna began systematically targeting Mr. Crosby for discipline because of his disability and because he availed himself of his leave rights.”

In 2007, McKenna disciplined Crosby for work-related infractions and threatened him with firing, despite years of exemplary performance that earned him an appointment to train other employees, the suit says. He misloaded orders only three times out of thousands, the suit says.

Other drivers were not disciplined as harshly as Crosby; he was the plant’s only veteran forklift operator to be fired for misloading an order, the suit says.

At one point in 2006, McKenna told Crosby he needed to “pay more attention to his job and less attention to his FMLA,” the suit says.

A few days later, McKenna said: “What? Did the cancer go to your brain and you forgot how to load the truck properly?” When Crosby told McKenna the next week he needed a brain scan, McKenna responded: “I guess I was right that the cancer did go to your head.”

Crosby was fired on Jan. 11, 2007 for a misload. The driver who parked his truck at the wrong door wasn’t disciplined, the suit says.

Phil Ahrens, an attorney representing Poland Spring, said Friday he hadn’t reviewed the lawsuit and, for that reason, couldn’t comment on it.