Patterson v. St. Dominic-Jackson Mem’l. Hosp. (Summary)

SEX DISCRIMINATION (NURSE)

Patterson v. St. Dominic-Jackson Mem’l. Hosp., No. 3:11-cv-623-CWR-FKB (S.D. Miss. Mar. 19, 2013)

The United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi denied a hospital’s motion for summary judgment on a nurse’s sex discrimination and retaliation claims. The nurse applied and was interviewed for one of four “RN Team Lead” positions in the emergency department at the hospital. However, all four positions were filled by men, and there was a rumor that the supervisor was not interested in hiring women because she thought they were too emotional and could not deal with the stress of the job. After the nurse filed a complaint, her supervisor brought forward a list of over 100 medical charts that the nurse had accessed in violation of the hospital’s privacy policy. At the supervisor’s suggestion, the nurse was terminated from her position.

The district court held that the nurse was within the statutory period to file the complaint. It was reasonable for the nurse to assume that she was in the running for the job up until she was informed that all four positions had been filled. The court considered rumors of the supervisor’s desire to not hire females as nothing more than office gossip.

The district court also held that the nurse demonstrated a causal link between her complaint and her eventual termination. The nurse had received excellent evaluations and had no history of disciplinary problems. Although the supervisor argued that accessing unassigned patients was inappropriate, other nurses in the emergency department claimed to access unassigned charts for a number of legitimate reasons. These nurses were never disciplined for violating the hospital’s privacy policy. The district court felt that this dispute over the reason for reporting the privacy violation was enough to survive the motion to dismiss.