Nathan v. Ohio State Univ. (Summary)

FEDERAL DISCRIMINATION/PROVISION OF DOCUMENTS

Nathan v. Ohio State Univ., No. 2:10-cv-872 (S.D. Ohio June 14, 2013)

The United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio denied a university-affiliated hospital’s motion for reconsideration of an order to compel the provision of protected documents, finding that the university had continuously failed to produce all performance-related documents pertinent to an anesthesiologist’s termination after being compelled by the court to do so.  In the underlying case, a female anesthesiologist sued the university alleging that her termination was discriminatory.  The university disagreed, claiming it was legitimately based on a number of significant performance deficiencies involving her interpersonal relationships and disruption of hospital operations.  In order to show that her termination was pretextual, the anesthesiologist sought all performance-related documentation for the other anesthesiologists practicing at the hospital, which the court upheld with an order to compel.  Initially, the university refused to comply at all, arguing that the request was burdensome and overbroad, then the university only provided those documents in the possession of the department chair, that the chair had actually relied upon in his performance evaluations of other anesthesiologists.  In this third review of the order to compel, the court determined that the order needed no further clarification and that the university simply refused to construe the term “performance-related” in a commonsense manner and refused to complete a reasonable inquiry in locating the relevant documents.