Lewis-Gale Med. Ctr. v. Alldredge (Summary)

TORTIOUS INTERFERENCE WITH EMPLOYMENT CONTRACT

Lewis-Gale Med. Ctr. v. Alldredge, No. 100457 (Va., June 9, 2011)

The Supreme Court of Virginia overturned a $900,000 jury verdict against a medical center for intentionally interfering with a physician’s contract with her group. The medical center was concerned about the physician’s involvement in a matter involving the nursing staff and immediately instructed her group to “take care of the issue.” Shortly thereafter, the group terminated the physician’s contract.

The physician sued the medical center and alleged that the medical center fabricated “a pretext of ‘smoke and mirrors’ to procure the termination of her contract” by labeling her an “organizational terrorist” and threatening “financial ruin” of the group by refusing to do business with it if the group did not terminate the physician. While she admitted that her contract was terminable at will, the physician claimed that the medical center used threats, fraud, and misrepresentation to ensure her termination, all illegal methods, even with “at will” employment.

The jury ruled in favor of the physician and awarded her $900,000 in damages. The Supreme Court of Virginia, however, overturned the verdict. The supreme court held that while labeling the physician an “organizational terrorist” was hyperbolic and unprofessional, it did not rise to the level of fraud or misrepresentation. The court also held that since the group’s contract with the medical center was also terminable at will, threatening to terminate the contract, a completely legal action, was not made illegal simply because the medical center threatened to do so on account of the physician. As the court noted: “the law will not provide relief to every disgruntled player in the rough-and-tumble world comprising the competitive market place.”