LONG BEACH : Doctor Wins $1.1 Million in Racial Bias Lawsuit
Long Beach Memorial Medical Center must pay an African-American doctor $1.1 million for racially discriminating against him, a Superior Court jury decided Tuesday.
Dr. Patrick Chavis, a 40-year-old obstetrician and gynecologist who practices in Compton, filed a lawsuit in 1988 against the center’s Women’s Hospital and the center’s Board of Directors, charging that he was treated unfairly.
The medical center denied the allegations and plans to appeal the verdict, said spokesman Ron Yukelson.
Chavis completed his residency at USC in 1981 and applied for an associate staff position at the hospital. The hospital hired him at a lower level and promoted him after he complained. In 1988, a panel of doctors and administrators reprimanded him for using forceps during a delivery. Chavis maintained the delivery required their use and that the mother and baby reported no ill effects.
“When you’re dealing with sophisticated institutions you’re never going to get a blatant slur,” said Chavis’ attorney, Henry R. Fenton. “The way it manifests itself is through . . . nitpicking over these tiny little things.”
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