Judge tosses pagan nurse's religious discrimination lawsuit against Joplin Gardens owners

A federal judge granted a motion for summary judgment, dismissing a former Joplin Gardens nurse's religious discrimination lawsuit today, saying there was no evidence that Lucinda Cox's Christian bosses discriminated against her because she was a pagan.

In his opinion, Judge David P. Rush noted that evidence provided by attorneys for N & R of Joplin, LLC, Joplin Gardens' owner, showed there was ample reason to both discipline and eventually fire Cox.

The administrators disciplined Cox for not properly providing medication to patients, something Cox acknowledged, but claimed other employees who were not pagans had also failed to properly provide medication and received lesser punishments.

Rush noted that administrators documented that the offenses committed by two others named by Cox were not of "comparable seriousness."

Cox's attorney's claim that Joplin Gardens did not follow its own policies in terminating Cox was also shot down by the judge, noting that Joplin Gardens had every right to choose how to run its business, including not following its own policy "as long as it does not ultimately discriminate in doing so."

The judge noted that while Cox disputed the administrators' claims that she had not provided medication to patients, she provided no evidence indicating that she had provided the medication.

Cox's claims of a hostile work environment also didn't hold water, Rush noted.

Defendant argues that Plaintiff’s hostile work environment claim also fails as a matter of law because the uncontroverted material facts show Plaintiff did not suffer severe, pervasive, or extreme harassment because of her religion. According to Defendant, there is no proof that it knew or should have known about the alleged harassment because Plaintiff never reported that harassment to Defendant.

Three comments that were used by Cox to show she had been discriminated against in the workplace were dismissed as "simple teasing" from co-workers by the judge. 

In fact, the comments indicate that the coworkers felt threatened by Plaintiff. Accordingly, this factor does not support a claim of unwelcome harassment. 

 Rush noted Cox had provided no evidence to show that her bosses were even aware of the comments.

Details from the original lawsuit petition can be found at the link below>

The Turner Report: Pagan nurse sues Joplin nursing home owners for religious discrimination (rturner229.blogspot.com)