Suit Alleges Firing of HIV Positive Woman

A San Bernardino woman filed a $5-million lawsuit against a medical laboratory Tuesday, charging that she was fired shortly after an office sponsored blood test revealed she is HIV positive.

Mary Jane Holcomb, 31, took the free blood test in January at Watson Medical Laboratories, where she had been working as a data processing clerk for less than a month. A short time later, company President Paul Watson informed her by phone that she was HIV positive and told her she would have to be terminated, she said.

“I was devastated,” she said. “Not only was I HIV positive, but I got fired from my job because of it.”

Attorneys for Holcomb filed a lawsuit in Superior Court in San Bernardino, contending that the laboratory, Watson and company executives discriminated against her because she is HIV positive.

Watson called the accusations “totally false” and declined further comment.

But Holcomb, at a news conference Tuesday called by AIDS Project Los Angeles, said Watson told her she would have to be fired because some of her co-workers were uncomfortable working with her because she had tested positive for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

“He was afraid that other employees would quit their jobs,” she said. “He said it would be easier to let me go than to replace the whole staff.”

The loss of her job was particularly painful because she and her husband, Kurt, are now unemployed and forced to live with her parents. Kurt Holcomb, who tested negative for the virus, said the virus has brought other hardships.

“We’ve noticed that people are no longer friendly to us,” he said. “Some people are comfortable talking to you over the phone, but when you are face to face it is different.”

William Genego, one of Holcomb’s attorneys, said the free blood screenings at the San Bernardino-based Watson laboratories were offered as a benefit of employment. Holcomb decided to have her blood tested to determine if she was anemic and requested the HIV test, which was also being offered.

Even though the results of such tests are normally confidential, Genego said Holcomb’s supervisors were informed before she was. The company, he said, had no written procedures or formal policy concerning confidentiality even though it was in the business of screening blood.

“It is ironic, cruel and sad that Dr. Watson and Watson Laboratories, who have profited handsomely from what everyone else knows only as the tragedy of AIDS, were unable to treat Ms. Holcomb with common decency, much less abide by the law,” Genego said.

Roger Tansey, AIDS Project Los Angeles’ director of legal services, said state law prohibits companies from discriminating against people with AIDS and a federal law is set to take effect this month.