jquery page refresh not working when cfc function has a <cfinclude>

Part of my app provides various email content pages, which are called and populated with data, then prepared for sending through Postmark.

In the following case, when a user shows interest in a job, s/he clicks a button labelled "Chase Job" which ultimate results in an email being sent to the job owner.

When that button is clicked, jQuery handles it as follows:

$('#chase-form .btnChase').on("click",function(e){
   var clickedID = $(this).attr("id");	
   var chase = clickedID.split("_")[1];
   var user_id = clickedID.split("_")[2];
   var listing_id = clickedID.split("_")[3];
   var message = $('#intro-message').val();
   $(this).prop('disabled', true);
      jQuery.getJSON("/cfcs/listing.cfc?method=chaseJob&returnformat=json",{"chase":chase,"user_id":user_id,"listing_id":listing_id,"status":status,"message":message},function(res,code){
      if(res == 1){
         top.location.reload(true);
      }
      $('#chase-form .btnChase').removeAttr("disabled");
   });
   return true;
});

This hits a function in listing.cfc

<cffunction name="chaseJob" access="remote" returnType="any">
   ....
   <cfset res = variables.oUser.SendJobStatusEmail(
      sender_id=arguments.user_id,
      recipient_id=qListing.user_id,
      status=arguments.status,
      listing_id=arguments.listing_id,
      userType=0)>
   ....
   <cfreturn res>
</cffunction>

This, in turn, calls a function in user.cfc

<cffunction name="SendJobStatusEmail" access="remote" returnType="any">
   ... compile some data for an email ...
   
   <!---The following generates a page of html and wraps it in <cfsavecontent>. That <cfsavecontent> is made available to the function by including it here. However, if I do it this way, processing doesn't reach the jQuery page reload --->
   <cfinclude template="/email-templates/template.cfm"> 

   <!---Instead of the above, if I hardcode some html, it DOES allow processing to reach the jQuery reload --->
   <cfset emailBody='<div> <p>Hi there</p> <div>'>
   
   ....
   <cfreturn 1>

Contents of the included template as follows:

<cfsilent>
   ...
   <!--- set variables accessible by the email template, etc --->
   ...

   <cfset page_upload_path = entity_upload_path & "\" & vListingID>

   <!--- create the page dir --->
   <cfif not directoryexists(page_upload_path)>
      <cfdirectory directory="#page_upload_path#" action="create">
   </cfif>

   <!--- load template into savecontent variable. --->
   <cfsavecontent variable="page_content">
      <cfinclude template="template-chase-homeowner.cfm">
   </cfsavecontent>
   <!--- A populated version of the template is now available via "page_content" --->

   <!--- upload the rendered template, to be called later into an email --->
   <cfset randNo = createUUID()>
   <cfset vFile = "#page_upload_path#\#randNo#.cfm">
   <cffile action = "write" 
      file = "#vFile#"
      output = "#page_content#"
      nameconflict = "overwrite">
   </cffile>
</cfsilent>	

<!--- fetch the rendered page and wrap it in cfsavecontent --->
<cfsavecontent variable = "emailBody">
   <cfinclude  template="#viewFile#">
</cfsavecontent>

<!--- "emailBody" is the variable used for the Postmark API call --->

Further processing inside user.cfc simply sends an email

<cfset resPostmark = oSystem.sendPostmarkEmail(
   mailHtml = emailBody
   ... other parameters ...
)>

Can anyone help in understanding the issue, i.e.: Presenting the data inside a cfc using a <cfinclude>, while it works in sending a perfect email, somehow balks the processing, so that it never reaches the jQuery callback directing the page to reload.