Hospital Must Pay Legal Fees of Demoted Nurse
A federal judge ordered Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center to pay legal fees for a Filipina nurse who was demoted after she refused to obey a “no Tagalog” rule and sued the hospital over the language ban.
U.S. District Judge Edward Rafeedie made the latest order Monday. In October, he ruled that the language ban was not discriminatory, as nurse Aida Dimaranan had alleged in her lawsuit, because it was adopted to improve morale after some non-Filipina nurses complained about Dimaranan’s use of Tagalog. But Rafeedie also ruled the hospital had illegally retaliated against Dimaranan by demoting her and ordered her reinstated to a comparable position. The hospital has not yet complied.
Attorney’s fees and court costs for Dimaranan amount to $128,000, said Kathryn Imahara, a lawyer for the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, which is representing Dimaranan.
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