LaFlamme v. Rumford Hosp. – July 2015 (Summary)

EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION – NURSING

LaFlamme v. Rumford Hosp., No. 2:13-cv-460-JDL (D. Me. July 9, 2015)

The United States District Court for the District of Maine denied a hospital’s motion for summary judgment in an employment discrimination case. The hospital had fired a Med Surg nurse who had been on disability for over a year after having back surgery.

The nurse had been promoted to full-time status prior to the surgery, but requested a reduction in her work hours in the months following her back surgery, culminating with a request for medical leave. After six months of medical leave, the hospital and nurse agreed she would be moved from full-time to per diem status. This meant she would have no regular work hours, but would work only when needed to fill in for regular employees. During this time, the hospital attempted to schedule the nurse for a number of shifts over the next six months, but the nurse was unable to be cleared by her physician for work. In November, she informed the hospital that she expected to be cleared to return to work in four weeks. The hospital terminated the nurse in December under its long-standing policy of terminating per diem nurses if they have not worked within the last six months.

In denying the hospital’s motion for summary judgment, the district court found there was a triable issue of fact as to whether it was reasonable for the nurse to ask the hospital to keep her position open after she informed it in November that she would be cleared for full-time work in four weeks. The district court also found that whether the nurse’s employment termination for absenteeism was based on her disability was also a triable issue. Further, the court found the nurse had made a prima facie case for retaliation, explaining a jury could find the hospital’s reasons for firing her (i.e., her unavailability and poor work performance) were pretextual.