Austin Court of Appeals Affirms Ruling in Favor of Whistleblower represented by Wiley Walsh, P.C. who Reported Patient Abuse

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Dec 22, 2020, 16:35 ET

AUSTIN, Texas, Dec. 22, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- On December 10, 2020, the Third Court of Appeals of Texas affirmed a lower court's decision in favor of Mr. Ethan Vestal against the Health and Human Services Commission("HHSC"). In doing so, the appellate court ordered the case to go back to the trial court for further proceedings, which includes a jury trial on the merits.

The lawsuit alleges HHSC terminated Mr. Vestal because he reported to the Department of Family Protective Services ("DFPS") and the Office of the Inspector General ("OIG") multiple instances of patient abuse. The lawsuit was initially filed on March 21, 2018 in Travis County District Court.

The lawsuit states that during his tenure at Terrell State Hospital, owned and operated by HHSC, Mr. Vestal reported several instances of patient abuse to DFPS and the OIG. These instances included Mr. Vestal witnessing a patient being choked and slammed to the ground, being informed by a patient with multiple bruises covering his body that a staff member had hit him several times, being informed by a juvenile patient's mother that her child had choke marks and scratch marks from being forcefully restrained by hospital staff, and an episode where Mr. Vestal saw a hospital staff member roughhousing with juvenile patients at the facility.

Shortly after his reports, the staff at Terrell refused to work with him and would engage in harassing behavior towards him. As the Court of Appeals noted, Mr. Vestal's supervisors "knew that Vestal was having problems with his co-workers and that Vestal believed those problems were because of his reporting; however, neither [of the supervisors] investigated the issue. Instead, within a month of his last report, and the same month that [a co-worker] reported that the nursing staff did not want to work with Vestal, [his immediate supervisor] initiated the termination of Vestal's employment."

During litigation, HHSC argued that Mr. Vestal's whistleblower claim must be dismissed because no reasonable person could determine that Mr. Vestal's reports were a but-for cause of his termination because his supervisors were unaware of the reports. But, as the court noted in its decision, this is despite the fact that at least one of his supervisor's "testimony suggests that Vestal, in fact, informed [him] that his co-workers were hostile towards him and that, in Vestal's view, this was due to his reporting of illegal conduct." In affirming the lower court's decision to deny HHSC's motion to dismiss the case, the Court held "that a genuine issue of material fact exists as to whether Vestal's reporting was a but-for cause of the Commission's decision to terminate his employment. Consequently, the trial court did not err in denying the Commission's jurisdictional challenge on this ground."

For a copy of the court's opinion, please click on the link.

Mr. Vestal is represented by Jairo Castellanos, Colin Walsh, and Rob Wiley of Wiley Walsh, P.C., a plaintiff's side employment litigation firm in Austin, Texas. Rob Wiley and Colin Walsh are board certified in labor and employment law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.

Related Links
https://www.wileywalsh.com

SOURCE Wiley Walsh, P.C.