Sixth Circuit Dismisses Racial Discrimination Claim by Surgeon Following Suspension of Privileges
By Michael Schulze and Harry Shulman*
For Brintley to prevail on her state-law racial discrimination claim, the appeals court observed that the lack of any direct evidence that St. Mary’s discriminated against her on the basis of her race required Brintley to present evidence that the hospital treated her differently than “similarly-situated employees” who were not African American. Brintley alleged St. Mary’s imposed less-restrictive interventions on two Caucasian doctors than it imposed upon her. However, the court noted that “neither of the other two doctors had the history of serious complications that Brintley did. Thus, neither of them are similarly situated to Brintley, and her Elliot-Larsen claim therefore fails.” situated to Brintley, and her Elliot-Larsen claim therefore fails.”
1 Brintley v. St. Mary Mercy Hosp., No. 12-2616 (6th Cir. Nov. 16, 2013).
2 42 U.S.C. § 1981.
3 42 U.S.C. § 1981.
*We would like to thank Michael R. Schulze (Sullivan Stolier Schulze & Grubb Knight LC, Lafayette, LA), and Harry Shulman (Hooper Lundy & Bookman PC, San Francisco, CA), for authoring this email alert, and David L. Haron and Mercedes Varasteh Dordeski (Foley & Mansfield PLLP, Detroit, MI), for reviewing it.
Member benefit educational opportunity:
Participate in Part VI of the dispute resolution in health care webinar forum: the essential role of in-house counsel in resolving health care disputes (February 13).
February 13, 2014” Sixth Circuit Dismisses Racial Discrimination Claim by Surgeon Following Suspension of privileges.” American Health Lawyers Association (AHLA) (Email Alert) Co-written with Harry Shulman.
