Frances v. Nexion Healthcare at McKinney, Inc. (Summary)

AGE DISCRIMINATION

Frances v. Nexion Healthcare at McKinney, Inc., Case No. 4:13cv210 (E.D. Tex. June 17, 2014)

A federal district court in Texas granted in part and denied in part a hospital’s motion to dismiss claims alleging that a former vocational nurse was dismissed due to age discrimination.

The nurse, a 61-year-old male, worked at the health care facility since 2010, where he received satisfactory performance reviews. In the summer of 2011, he was given the choice to be either demoted or terminated. The nurse resigned and was replaced by someone younger.

The court denied the health care facility’s motion to dismiss claims of discriminatory discharge or demotion. The court found that the nurse presented sufficient allegations to support the action, so long as evidence is presented at trial to show that his employment would have been made objectively worse by his employer’s actions.

Additionally, the court found that the nurse alleged sufficient facts to support the nurse’s claim of constructive discharge under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. Once again, the court reminded the nurse that he will be required to support his claim with evidence to show that he felt compelled to resign in the situation.

Finally, the nurse was held to have first exhausted all of his administrative remedies, as the allegations in his EEOC complaint were consistent with the pleadings brought before the court.