Mittler v. OhioHealth Corp. (Summary)

AGE DISCRIMINATION

Mittler v. OhioHealth Corp., No. 12AP-119 (Ohio Ct. App. Apr. 23, 2013)

The Court of Appeals of Ohio reversed the judgment of a trial court and found that the plaintiff did not establish a prima facie case of age discrimination.

The plaintiff, a 54-year-old NICU nurse, was terminated following two incidents on the same day.  In the first incident, the nurse committed a HIPAA violation, was aware of the violation, and failed to report it.  The second incident involved the nurse mistakenly administering eye drops to twin infants and, after realizing the mistake, failing to file an incident report.  The nurse was terminated for these incidents and, after termination, filed an age discrimination lawsuit under state law.  The trial court found in favor of the nurse, and the hospital appealed.

In an age discrimination case, the plaintiff must prove a prima facie case of discrimination by showing that the plaintiff was: (1) a member of a protected class; (2) discharged; (3) qualified for the position; and (4) replaced by, or the discharge permitted the retention of, a person of substantially younger age.  The appeals court found that the nurse did not establish a prima facie case because she failed to prove that the hospital replaced her with a substantially younger person or that her termination permitted the hospital to retain a person of substantially younger age.  Thus, the appeals court reversed the trial court’s judgment in favor of the nurse.