Hague v. Univ. of Tex. Health Sci. Ctr. at San Antonio (Summary)

SEX DISCRIMINATION RETALIATION

Hague v. Univ. of Tex. Health Sci. Ctr. at San Antonio, No. 13-50102 (5th Cir. Mar. 28, 2014)

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed a lower court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of a defendant hospital which dismissed a plaintiff nurse’s claims of sex discrimination and sexual harassment, but vacated the lower court’s ruling which granted summary judgment on the retaliation claim.

The nurse was employed by the hospital in the emergency department and, while employed, filed complaints with the hospital against two physicians who worked in the department.  One complaint was for sexual harassment while the other was for differential treatment of employees.  The nurse also filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) and, before the hospital had received any notice of this filing, the nurse was notified by the hospital that her employment contract would not be renewed.  The nurse received a right to sue letter from the EEOC and filed a lawsuit alleging that the hospital retaliated against her and that she was the subject of sex discrimination as well as sexual harassment, which the lower court dismissed.

The appeals court affirmed the lower court’s rulings on the sex discrimination and sexual harassment claims.  On the sex discrimination claim, the appeals court found that the nurse failed to include specific claims of sex discrimination in her EEOC filing.  Also, for the sexual harassment claim, the appeals court found that although the nurse alleged sexual harassment by a supervisor, the conduct in question came from a coworker who did not possess the power to take employment actions against the nurse.  Thus, the appeals court analyzed the coworker’s conduct under the standards for hostile work environment and found that the coworker’s conduct did not have any serious effect on the nurse’s employment, as no physical or sexual advances were made to her and the offensive comments were made infrequently.

Finally, the appeals court vacated the lower court’s ruling on the retaliation claim, finding that the nurse had raised an issue of fact for a jury to decide – namely, that a jury could conclude that the hospital’s reasons for not renewing her employment contract were pretextual, since the hospital refused to give the nurse any reason for not renewing the employment contract at the time it was not renewed, but gave a laundry list of reasons once the nurse filed this lawsuit.