Goodman McGuffey LLP attorneys and DRI members Robert A. Luskin and Alyce B. Ogunsola recently obtained a complete grant of summary judgment in favor of their client, a regional health-care facility. Both Mr. Luskin and Ms. Ogunsola practice in the firm’s Atlanta office.
The plaintiff, a woman of Columbian decent, filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia, alleging that she was discriminated against and subjected to a hostile work environment, in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1983. She also asserted a claim for retaliation under the False Claims Act.
After extensive discovery, the defense team filed a motion for summary judgment, arguing that the plaintiff essentially abandoned her racial discrimination claim by failing to produce any evidence of discrimination in her employment or termination. The defense team also established that the plaintiff’s purported seven instances of alleged racial harassment, including comments that could potentially be directed at her national origin, over the course of eight years were neither severe nor pervasive enough to rise to the level of a hostile work environment. Finally, the defense team contended that the plaintiff did not engage in protected activity under the False Claims Act when she told the chief of staff that she believed that a handful of patients were being kept longer than she believed was medically necessary and when she opined that a peer review should be conducted.
The court agreed with the defense argument that the plaintiff failed to support her discrimination claim. The court also found that while the plaintiff may have perceived the incidents of alleged racial harassment as subjectively hostile, they were not sufficiently objectively hostile to constitute a hostile work environment. The court found that the plaintiff’s complaints were not related to fraudulent claims for federal funds, and therefore, she had not engaged in protected activity under the False Claims Act. Ultimately, the defense prevailed, and the court granted summary judgment in the defendants’ favor on all counts. Vazquez v. Upson Cty. Hosp., Inc., No. 5:18-CV-00073-TES, 2019 WL 5395447, at *1 (M.D. Ga. Oct. 22, 2019).
