Pal v. New York Univ. (Summary)

FELLOWSHIP TERMINATION

Pal v. New York Univ., No. 06 Civ. 5892(PAC)(FM) (S.D. N.Y. Aug. 6, 2013)

The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled in favor of a medical school, finding that the medical school’s suspension and subsequent termination of a physician in a fellowship program were not retaliatory actions that are protected by New York state labor laws, but, rather, were legitimately based on the physician’s improper behavior. The court found that the medical school had demonstrated that it had not acted adversely toward the physician because she had expressed concerns regarding patient safety, but instead, because she made anonymous pre-operative calls to patients, expressing her concerns and creating risks to the patients’ health. The court found that the physician was less concerned about patient safety than she was about herself and whether she would be blamed for a particular patient’s death.