Kaiser Settles Lawsuit of Social Worker fired for reporting a death threat

Kaiser Settles Fired Social Worker's Lawsuit
By BARBARA WALLACE
Courthouse News
March 19, 2014

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) - A social worker who claimed that Kaiser fired her for reporting a death threat has settled her civil suit, a federal judge's ruling shows.

Robin Love, a licensed clinical social worker and certified alcohol and drug counselor, sued the Permanente Medical Group, Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and Kaiser Foundation Health Plan in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

The November 2012 complaint alleged that a fellow therapist had warned Love that one of her patients had said he wanted "to murder Robin Love."

"For many months, Ms. Love requested that defendants obtain a restraining order on her behalf to protect her from the threatening patient," the complaint stated.

"Defendants failed to protect Ms. Love. When Ms. Love complained to several of Kaiser's managers about the ongoing violations of workplace safety and Kaiser's failure to protect her, defendants retaliated against Ms. Love by bringing false disciplinary charges against her, subjecting her to unlawful corrective action, and then terminating her employment."

U.S. District Judge William Orrick dismissed Love's whistle-blower and contract claims this past December but left intact her claims for discrimination, wrongful termination, emotional distress and other issues.

On Friday, he dismissed the case with prejudice, noting that the parties had announced a settlement after a conference with U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Laporte.

The matter shall be restored to the calendar, however, if either party certifies within 60 days that the settlement did not occur.

Details of the settlement are unavailable. Love's attorney Jenny Huang declined to comment on the dismissal. A Kaiser spokesman noted that the voluntary settlement did not include "any admission of any wrongdoing by any of the defendants."