LOGAN – A Logan County woman is suing over alleged disability discrimination and failure to accommodate, among other grievances.
Kathy Robinette filed suit in Logan Circuit Court against Lifepoint RC, Inc.; Logan General Hospital, LLC; Logan Regional Medical Center; and employee Brenda Adams.
An employee for seven years at Logan Regional, Adams says she reported a fellow employee for allegedly being impaired on the job. A meeting was held to discuss the matter, subsequently resulting in the employee being sent home and suspended for a week.
Fearing that the employee would be hostile toward her, Robinette claims to have requested a change in shift. When it was not granted, she had to work alongside the employee for three months after the incident, allegedly causing her great emotional distress and anxiety.
The plaintiff then claims to have been put on prescription medical therapy by her physician, among other treatments, to deal with the situation, which by then, she claims, had gotten even worse as others had allegedly sided with the suspended employee and turned against her. The plaintiff once again met with her supervisor to request a shift change, informing her of the medication she was now on. Her supervisor claimed to have been working on it, but the situation reportedly worsened, and the plaintiff had a seizure while on the job, after which she was requested to stay and finish out her shift.
Shortly thereafter, the plaintiff says she applied for a job in a different department within the same company, but in a different location. She got the job, but was finally offered another job at her location in a different position, which would open up soon.
Then, while working in proximity to the employee who was previously suspended, the plaintiff says she received a call from a patient reporting that another employee was allegedly impaired on the job, which she subsequently reported to her supervisors as well. Fearing even more repercussions, one of her employers reportedly requested that the plaintiff be put on another shift, away from the employee that was previously suspended. The request was granted for approximately one week. She was then placed back on her original shift, once again working alongside the employee who she had reported.
Then, Adams says the previous job change reportedly was no longer made available, directly resulting in the plaintiff continuing to have to work in her current, allegedly hostile work environment, eventually leading to her leaving work for good and filing the suit.
The plaintiff alleges disability discrimination, failure to accommodate and violation of public policy. She seeks lost wages and benefits, back and front pay, and various other damages, as well as attorney and court costs, and a trial by jury.
The plaintiff is being represented by Steven S. Wolfe of Wolfe Law Office PLLC of Logan. The case was assigned to Circuit Judge William Douglas Witten,
Logan Circuit Court case number 15-C-215