A judge recently ruled in favor of Steward Carney Hospital and its former president, Bill Walczak, declaring that neither engaged in defamation or retaliation when firing 31 employees more than a decade ago.
The verdict — reported by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly on Feb. 2 — was delivered in Suffolk (Mass.) Superior Court on Dec. 18.
The case was brought by nine former nurses at the Dorchester, Mass.-based hospital; they were among 31 employees on the adolescent psychiatry unit whom Mr. Walczak fired early in his tenure. In April 2011, it was discovered that four patients on the unit had suffered sexual or physical abuse over a three-week span. Although the plaintiffs were not directly involved in the abuse, Mr. Walczack believed they were part of a "broken" culture and sought to start anew.
The nurses alleged the hospital and Mr. Walczak had retaliated against them for whistleblowing, as they had raised concerns about the unit's operations, including understaffing. Although there were proven staffing issues on the unit — as there are across the health system — they could not be directly tied to the firings, the court ruled.
The nurses also alleged the defendants defamed them in hospitalwide emails and conversations with The Boston Globe; however, the jury did not agree.
The verdict "clarified that the desire to create a new culture in a workplace is a legitimate reason to take action," according to Robert Young, the defendants' attorney.
The judge did not initially grant the defendants statutory costs — though they have argued the award of certain taxable costs is "required as a matter of course."
The plaintiffs' attorneys have filed a motion for a new trial, writing: "The overwhelming evidence at trial was that Mr. Walczak made statements in writing about the Nurses, that those statements falsely implicated them in patient abuse and were as a matter of law defamatory, that the statements were so understood by dozens of people, and that the Nurses each suffered significant emotional distress and reputational damage as a result."
The hospital and its parent company, Dallas-based Steward Health Care, have not returned Becker's requests for comment.