Leitgen v. Franciscan Skemp Healthcare, Inc. (Summary)

TITLE VII; GENDER DISCRIMINATION

Leitgen v. Franciscan Skemp Healthcare, Inc., No. 09-1496 (7th Cir. Jan. 13, 2011)

The 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s judgment, granting summary judgment for a hospital in a suit brought by a former employed OB/GYN physician for retaliation based on gender under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.

The physician had requested a meeting with the person who was both the hospital’s chief financial officer and the secretary of the hospital’s compensation committee to discuss complaints about the compensation system in place. The physician felt that the system was adversely affecting her pay and that the pooling and sharing of delivery revenues were discriminatory to women. Shortly after this meeting, the physician was forced to resign. While the physician alleged that the termination was motivated by her complaints at this meeting, the hospital provided substantial evidence of many complaints about the physician over time, disciplinary meetings, and oral warnings about the physician’s communication problems with both staff and patients that resulted in the recommendation that she be fired. These problems were being reviewed and executives began discussing means of disciplining the physician prior to the meeting. The court also determined that the physician was unable to overcome the general rule that suspicious timing alone is insufficient to support a claim of retaliation.