A nurse recently lost her racial discrimination and retaliation case against a medical center in Huntsville, Ala., which claimed she was legally fired for unprofessional conduct.
On Oct. 27, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Crestwood Healthcare, stating the nurse failed to prove the employer fired her for complaining about racial discrimination.
Crestwood said it fired her for behavior that her co-workers called bullying, threatening and abusive. The nurse, who is Black, argued that those reasons were pretextual, or not the real reason for her dismissal in 2018.
"To prove pretext, an employee must identify weaknesses, implausibilities, inconsistencies, incoherencies, or contradictions in the employer's justification," the appeals court noted. "That burden does not require an employee to establish that an illegal reason was the only reason for the employer's action. Instead, it requires the employee to present evidence that casts doubt on the employer's proffered reason as the only reason for its action."
The court concluded the nurse did not meet that burden of proof.
Background
The plaintiff started working at Crestwood in 2007, and she supervised other nurses. On Feb. 22, 2018, the plaintiff and several other nurses treated a combative psychiatric patient. They were recorded on video singing, dancing and laughing in the room with the patient, according to court documents.
Due to the unprofessional behavior, Crestwood demoted the plaintiff from...
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