Doctor Who Says He Was Forced to Resign Wins Suit Against UCI

After only five hours of deliberations, a Superior Court jury in Santa Ana on Friday awarded $866,000 to a medical doctor who claimed he was forced to resign by UC Irvine.

The jury awarded Dr. Lubomir J. Valenta, an endocrinologist, $267,000 for past loss of income, $224,000 for future loss of income, $200,000 for other economic losses and $175,000 for non-economic losses, including emotional distress.

The defendant was the Board of Regents of the University of California.

Valenta’s lawyer, H. Richard Bixby, portrayed his client as the target of a vicious conspiracy of academics trying to obtain a larger share of dwindling medical research funds. Envy over Valenta’s quick rise to prominence at UC Irvine also played a role in the “character assassination” of his client, Bixby said.

Beginning in May of 1980, Valenta was accused of participating in illegal experiments on humans, of burglary and of the theft of a small quantity of a radioisotope used exclusively in research.

Denied Improper Research

Valenta denied knowledge of the improper research, which involved use of a machine developed as an artificial pancreas used in diabetes research. The machine, called a Biostater, was approved for experimental use only with diabetes victims.

A 20-member committee found enough evidence to conclude the machine had been used on humans not suffering from the disease. Three researchers on Valenta’s staff were given verbal reprimands, and a written censure for Valenta’s unethical conduct was circulated in the university.

No basis was established for the burglary allegation--which involved the temporary disappearance of files from a colleague’s office--or the theft of $100 worth of an isotope that could only be used in medical experiments and had no commercial value. But based on irregularities in Valenta’s inventory of radioactive isotopes, his university-issued license to purchase such substances was temporarily suspended.

UC Irvine lawyer Thomas B. Cummings contended that Valenta’s resignation was not forced and that the researcher failed to challenge the charges against him through normal faculty procedures.

“Whatever problems Dr. Valenta had were of his own creation,” Cummings told jurors. Valenta was a man who had “trouble living within the rules of campus society,” Cummings said.

The university was “fully justified” in investigating Valenta’s research and his inventory of radioactive materials, Cummings said. In both cases, disciplinary action was “mild,” he added.

Despite the controversy, Valenta had been rated very highly by superiors for his administration of the department of endocrinology in a review in March of 1981. He was awarded a merit raise, bringing his salary to $66,800.

But three months later, Valenta’s salary was cut 45%. Valenta was told that there were “too many complaints against him,” Bixby said. He was not given a hearing to rebut the complaints, Bixby contended.

Professional Ruin

The result was Valenta’s resignation--which he testified was involuntary--and professional and financial ruin, according to Bixby.

Valenta contended that his forced resignation meant he had been wrongfully discharged, that university officials failed to deal with him fairly and in good faith, and that he was deprived of his tenured position at the state institution without a hearing and the right to defend himself. One typical feature of wrongful termination cases--punitive damages, those designed to punish and make an example of the defendant--are prohibited by law in California against government entities.

Valenta, 54, was born in Czechoslovakia. He performed research in France, at Harvard University and the University of Michigan before being recruited by UC Irvine in 1975.

Could Not Get Job

When Valenta left UC Irvine, he found that he could not get another research job because of the controversy at the school. He applied for 40 different university research posts and failed to received a response, Bixby said. He then tried to set up a medical practice but “fell right on his face,” Bixby told jurors.

“Dr. Valenta tried to practice medicine,” Bixby said. “But he was not a practitioner, he was a researcher. He didn’t make it.”

After the verdict, Bixby said Valenta was “ecstatic.” The doctor now lives in Santa Rosa, Bixby said.