Appeals Court Rules Against Medical School : Aspiring Nurse Wins Suit on Admission

A federal appeals court has ruled for the second time in favor of a 29-year-old aspiring nurse who sued Los Angeles County, contending that she was denied admittance to nursing school because she suffered from a chronic intestinal disorder for which there is no cure.

The ruling on Friday by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on behalf of Mary L. Kling reverses for a second time a lower court judgment against the woman, who suffers from Crohn’s Disease.

She had undergone an ileostomy involving the removal of the large intestine and a portion of the small intestine. Despite that, she maintained, she could complete her nursing education and work in the medical profession.

Denied Admission

Kling, who now lives in the Santa Barbara area, sued the county in 1979 after County-USC Medical Center’s nursing school withdrew her admission for classes because she did not pass two physical examinations. She lost initially in Los Angeles federal court when a judge ruled that she had not exhausted her administrative remedies to gain re-admittance to the school.

But on an appeal, the federal appeals court reversed the ruling in December, 1980. The nursing school then offered to accept her, but refused to accept credits she had earned at Pierce Community College in Woodland Hills during the time she was pursuing her appeal. She rejected the school’s admission offer and continued her lawsuit.

In the second trial in Los Angeles, U.S. District Judge Lawrence T. Lydick ruled that she was not entitled to an award of damages since she was not a disabled person under terms of the federal Rehabilitation Act. The judge also ruled that her illness--resulting in loss of weight, nausea, vomiting, headaches and acute abdominal pain--was not the sole reason for her rejection by the nursing school.

Lydick ruled that she was academically “deficient” for admission.

Appeals Again

Kling, however, appealed to the 9th Circuit Court again and the three-judge appeals panel ruled in her favor.

Senior U.S. District Judge Gus J. Solomon of Portland, Ore., on assignment to the appeals court for the case, wrote: “The district court’s findings are clearly erroneous and in many instances are inconsistent. We find that Mary Kling is an ‘otherwise qualified handicapped individual’ . . . and that she was denied admission to the School of Nursing solely because of her handicap.”

The appeals court ordered the case back to Lydick for a judgment of damages and attorneys’ fees in her favor.

Kling could not be reached for comment.