Ihegword v. Harris County Hosp. Dist. (Summary)

NATIONAL ORIGIN DISCRIMINATION/ADA

Ihegword v. Harris County Hosp. Dist., No. H-10-5180 (S.D. Tex. Mar. 7, 2013)

The United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas granted a hospital’s motion for summary judgment against a nurse who had previously been employed by the hospital.

The nurse alleged that she was fired as the result of national origin discrimination (she was Nigerian), disability discrimination, and retaliation, and that she had not received overtime wages.

The court granted summary judgment on the national origin discrimination claim because it concluded that the nurse failed to allege sufficient facts that would enable a jury to conclude that the hospital intentionally discriminated against her on the basis of her national origin. Although the court noted that the nurse and one of her Nigerian colleagues had both filed grievances regarding perceived discriminatory treatment, the court concluded that these grievances did not amount to sufficient evidence that the nurse’s termination was caused by animus for her national origin.

Furthermore, the court concluded that the nurse failed to establish a prima facie case for national origin discrimination because she failed to identify anyone outside of her protected class who was treated more favorably than she under nearly identical circumstances.

The court granted summary judgment on the disability discrimination claim because it concluded that the hospital had provided the nurse with reasonable accommodation for her alleged disability of osteoarthritis of her knees. When the nurse first requested that the hospital modify her work schedule as a reasonable accommodation for her osteoarthritis, the hospital granted her request and modified her work schedule. The court considered this modification to be adequate and timely accommodation of her disability.

The court granted summary judgment on the retaliation claim on two grounds.  First, although the nurse alleged that she was subjected to disciplinary actions that were retaliatory in nature, the court noted that these disciplinary actions were in response to conduct that the nurse acknowledged that she engaged in even though it was prohibited by the hospital.  Second, the court concluded that the time period between the nurse’s reasonable accommodation and her termination from employment (17 months) was too long for the court to identify a causal relationship between the accommodation and the termination.

Finally, the court granted summary judgment on the unpaid wages claim because the nurse failed to produce any evidence that she performed work for which she was never paid.