Perry v. Naples HMA, LLC (Summary)

RACIAL DISCRIMINATION/EMPLOYMENT/ED STAFFING

Perry v. Naples HMA, LLC, No. 2:13-cv-36 (M.D. Fla. Nov. 19, 2014)

The United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida granted judgment as a matter of law in favor of a hospital system, with respect to a number of claims, in a lawsuit brought by an African-American, female physician who alleged racial discrimination motivated the hospital system to request her removal as the medical director of the hospital system’s emergency department.   In support of her claims, the physician alleged that although the satisfaction ratings for the Emergency Department steadily increased under her supervision, the CNO, director of nursing, and others refused to answer to her and manufactured false accusations about the quality of her services. Soon after raising her concern that she was being treated discriminatorily, the hospital requested that the ED staffing organization remove the director from her assignment to the hospital, pursuant to a contractual provision allowing the hospital to require removal of any health care professional if it believed removal to be in the hospital’s best interest.

In dismissing the Title VII claim brought by the physician, the court noted that she was an independent contractor of the ED staffing organization (and not an employee) and, accordingly, even under a theory of indirect liability, the hospital could not be held liable for violation of Title VII (an employment law). For the same reason, the court rejected the physician’s claim that the hospital could be held liable as a “joint employer” with the ED staffing organization.

The court allowed the physician’s claim pursuant to §1981 of the Civil Rights Act (that the hospital discriminatorily interfered with her contract with the ED staffing organization) to continue. The court noted that §1981, unlike Title VII, protects an individual’s ability to enforce contracts (rather than employment relationships). The court held that if the hospital’s request to remove the physician from its ED was motivated by racial animus, that behavior would interfere with the physician’s ability to perform her contract with the ED staffing organization and would be subject to §1981.