$2M RETALIATION VERDICT FOR CARDIOLOGIST UPHELD

The First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a $ 2 Million Dollar Jury Verdict in favor of a San Juan Puerto Rico Cardiologist who claimed he had been retaliated against for filing an age discrimination case five years earlier.  In actual fact, the plaintiff Dr. Munoz was fired within days of giving a deposition in the case wherein he recounted his evidence. The defendants appealed on the basis that the decision to fire him had been made well before his deposition and could not be the basis for establishing a retaliation claim under the Age Discrimination Act of 1967 (ADEA), 29 U.S.C. Section 623 d. The Court agreed, to a point, but found that the retaliation could relate back to the original filing, given other facts.

 

In Munoz v. Sociedad Espanola De Auxilio Mutuo Y Beneficiencia de Puerto Rico, N0 08-1887 (1st Cir. 2012), the court relied on a “mosaic of facts” to find that the jury could reasonably find that the defendants’ termination of the employment of Dr. Munoz was in retaliation for his filing the age discrimination suit against them. The ostensible basis for his termination was his competition with the defendants using his own electrocardiology machine in competition with the Defendants. Dr. Munoz was both employed by the Defendants and had his own private practice.  The Defendants had previously advised him that if he moved into their new medical office building the Torre Medica, he could move in his own machine. Other cardiologists who had their own machines were not similarly sanctioned. Then there was the unfortunate remark by an officer of one of the defendants that seemed to indicate that he would be singled out for sanctions.  As the court stated,

 

Other circumstantial evidence points in a similar direction. Serrano testified at trial that, before he filed the 1998 lawsuit, Echenique told him that if he were to sue the hospital he "would no longer be allowed to work either in that hospital or in any other hospital in Puerto Rico." Although this was an isolated remark made more than five years before Serrano's termination, Echenique was part of the collective that ultimately carried out the threat.

 

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