Retaliation Cases

School board employees were not entitled to statutory immunity on age discrimination and intentional infliction of emotional distress claims because genuine issue of material fact existed as to whether they acted with malice, in bad faith, wantonly, or recklessly in pursuing disciplinary proceedings against appellee. Employees were entitled to immunity as to retaliation claims where court identified no conduct attributable to them in denying summary judgment on the merits of the claim.

Retaliatory-discharge retaliation whistleblower retaliation. The trial court properly granted summary judgment in favor of a hospital in an action filed by a nurse who claimed she was discharged by the hospital in retaliation for her reporting an abuse by a nursing aide who raised all four rails of a resident's bed to confine the resident. Appellant nurse failed to create a genuine issue of material fact regarding her retaliatory-discharge claim under R.C. 3721.24 or whistleblower retaliation claim under R.C. 4113.52

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.

The trial court did not abuse its discretion in finding that the decision of an administrative law judge (ALJ) on a retaliation claim was supported by reliable, probative, and substantial evidence and that the ALJ had not improperly excluded evidence at the hearing. Judgment affirmed.