Love v. Permanente Med. Group (Summary)

HEALTH CARE WHISTLEBLOWER PROTECTION

Love v. Permanente Med. Group, No. 12-CV-05679 YGR (N.D. Cal. Apr. 5, 2013)

The United States District Court for the Northern District of California denied in part and granted in part a motion to dismiss several claims brought by a clinical social worker whose employment was terminated by the hospital defendant.

The social worker claimed that the hospital terminated her employment in violation of the state’s whistleblower protection law because she requested that the hospital obtain a restraining order on her behalf to protect her from a threatening patient. She also asserted claims for intentional interference with the right to practice her profession and intentional infliction of emotional distress.  The court dismissed the social worker’s retaliation claim under the whistleblower protection law, concluding that she failed to allege that she engaged in activity protected by the law.  The court also dismissed her intentional interference claims, holding that she did not allege that the defendants engaged in any conduct intended to prevent her from practicing her profession.  However, the court denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss with respect to the intentional infliction of emotional distress claim, concluding that whether defendants’ failure to obtain a restraining order from a patient who threatened to murder her and then retaliating against her for complaining was outrageous was an issue of fact that could not be resolved on a motion to dismiss. With respect to the claims that the court dismissed, the court gave the social worker 28 days to amend her complaint.