Discrimination Cases

CIVIL - reverse discrimination Ohio Civil Rights Commission random draw apprenticeship program unlawful practice R.C. 4112 probable cause application of prior federal court decisions manifest imbalance voluntary affirmative action plan prima facie case

Trial court did not err in granting an employer's motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict and alternative motion for new trial on a former employee's race-based discrimination claim under the McDonnell Douglas framework where the employee admitted to accessing a patient's confidential medical records for a purpose, at least in part, unrelated to patient care and such conduct is a terminable offense under the employer's policies. Judgment affirmed.

Plaintiff Laura Lee Demastus brought this action against her former employer, University Health System, Inc., doing business as the University of Tennessee Medical Center (Employer). After Plaintiff had worked roughly three years as a nurse at the UT Medical Center, Employer suspected that she was illegally diverting medications. When Plaintiff's supervisors confronted her with evidence of several suspicious transactions recorded by the medication monitoring systems, Plaintiff denied doing anything wrong or improper. She, however, could not explain the suspicious transactions. She was terminated shortly thereafter. Plaintiff brought this action under the Tennessee Disabilities Act (TDA), Tenn. Code Ann. § 8-50-103 et seq. (2016), alleging that she was fired solely because Employer perceived her to have the disability of drug addiction. Employer argued that it did not fire her because she was considered a drug addict, but because it thought she was stealing medications. Following discovery, the trial court granted summary judgment, holding that under the undisputed material facts, Plaintiff could not establish that Employer's proffered non-discriminatory reason was a pretext for illegal discrimination. We affirm

The trial court's judgment finding that appellant failed to carry his ultimate burden of demonstrating that the adverse employment action resulted from unlawful discrimination was not against the manifest weight of the evidence.