Fife v. Vicksburg Healthcare, LLC (Summary)

TITLE VII AND ADEA

Fife v. Vicksburg Healthcare, LLC, No. 5:11cv157-KS-MTP (S.D. Miss. May 13, 2013)

The United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi granted summary judgment in favor of a hospital in a lawsuit brought by a formerly employed 52-year-old, Caucasian medical technologist alleging, among other things, age and race discrimination.  The hospital terminated the medical technologist for accessing another employee’s medical records in violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”) and not admitting the unauthorized access when confronted by her supervisors.  The medical technologist sued, claiming, among other things, race discrimination under Title VII and age discrimination under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (“ADEA”).

The court granted summary judgment on the race discrimination claim because the medical technologist admitted in deposition testimony that her termination was not due to her race.  The court also granted summary judgment on the age discrimination claim, finding that the medical technologist failed to rebut the hospital’s nondiscriminatory reason for her termination. That is, that the hospital terminated her because she violated HIPAA and refused to admit the violation despite audit information indicating otherwise.

The court rejected the medical technologist’s claims of retaliation under Title VII and the ADEA, concluding that her deposition testimony demonstrated that she did not complain about age or race-based discrimination prior to her termination.

The court also granted summary judgment on all of the medical technologist’s state law claims. The court rejected her breach of contract claim because the technologist was an at-will employee with no employment contract and, thus, the hospital could terminate her employment at any time under state law.  The court held that her intentional infliction of emotional distress claim was time-barred because the claim was filed outside the statute of limitations.