CHARLESTON – A woman says her former employer fired her while she was on leave recovering from COVID-19.
Haleigh Brooke Cooper filed her complaint in Kanawha Circuit Court against Gentiva Health Services USA LLC and Nursing Care-Home Health Agency Inc. doing business as Kindred at Home.
According to the complaint, Cooper began working for the defendants in November 2016. She says she was wrongfully terminated in November 2020 while she was on an extended leave recovering from severe COVID-19 complications.
Cooper says she first was told her position had been eliminated, according to the complaint. Then, she says she was told she needed to reapply for her job and would be back to work. But, she wasn't rehired. Instead, her job was given to someone else, according to the complaint.
She accuses the defendants of violating the West Virginia Human Rights Act for failing to accommodate her disability of the temporary illness. She also accuses them of retaliatory termination, negligent infliction of emotional distress, reprisal, retaliation, violating an implied contract and negligent misrepresentation. She seeks compensatory damages, lost wages and benefits, punitive damages, court costs, attorney fees and other relief as well as possible injunctive relief including reinstatement.
Cooper is being represented by D. Adrian Hoosier II of the Hoosier Law Firm in Charleston. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Maryclaire Akers.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number 24-C-27