Nurse Seeks $1 Million as Witness to Sex Harassment : San Pedro: The doctor denies the allegation. His lawyer says alleged targets were not offended by horseplay among operating room staff.

After almost five years of legal delays, opening arguments were heard Wednesday in a landmark sexual harassment lawsuit in which a San Pedro nurse is seeking damages on grounds that she witnessed the abuse--not that she was the direct target of it.

Julie Fisher, a former operating room nurse at San Pedro Peninsula Hospital, has sued prominent South Bay obstetrician and gynecologist Barry Tischler for so-called environmental sexual harassment that occurred from 1981 to 1986 at the hospital.

Fisher contends that Tischler’s groping of nurses and other antics--including off-color remarks about female employees and patients--left her traumatized, eventually driving her to develop an alcohol problem that forced her to quit her job at the hospital.

Fisher is seeking compensation for emotional stress, lost wages and punitive damages totaling more than $1 million.

Tischler and the hospital, where he is a staff physician and sits on the board of directors, have denied the allegations, maintaining that Fisher misinterpreted innocent horseplay intended to alleviate stress in the workplace. The doctor’s lawyers said the very people he allegedly abused in Fisher’s presence will testify that his behavior did not offend them.

In 1989, the state Court of Appeal heard Fisher’s case and--in the first ruling of its kind in California--said bystanders can collect punitive damages from an employer if they can show “pervasive” or “severe” harassment in the workplace.

A 1990 state Supreme Court decision upheld the lower court ruling, clearing the way for witnesses of sexual harassment to seek damages against their employers.

In opening arguments Wednesday before Judge Mort Franciscus, Fisher’s lawyer, Peggy Garrity, said that what Tischler did went far beyond friendly banter.

“This case is not about friendly hugs,” Garrity told the jury of seven women and five men. (The composition of the jury changed later in the day when, after Garrity’s statement, a male juror caught napping during the proceedings was replaced by a female alternate.)

“It is not about clowning around. It is not about friendly banter. It is not about an overly sensitive plaintiff. It is about assault and it is about fear engendered in that assault,” Garrity said.

“This case is about the use of sexual power as a weapon. It is not about hugs,” Garrity said.

Fisher said that in 1982 Tischler repeatedly made offensive sexual comments to her and once hugged her so tightly that she suffered torn cartilage. After Fisher had filed a complaint with the hospital, Tischler apologized in a letter.

But several months later, Garrity said, Tischler started touching other nurses in a sexual manner and made several off-color sexual remarks about patients and employees in Fisher’s presence.

Fisher said she saw Tischler place a nurse on a gurney and climb on top of her. In another instance, Tischler stood behind a nurse and simulated sexual intercourse, Garrity said.

Altogether, Fisher contends there were about 60 acts of sexual harassment from September, 1985, to September, 1986, the period for which she can collect damages under the statute of limitations imposed by state employment laws.

“She lived in terror every day she went to work at San Pedro Peninsula Hospital,” Garrity said.

But lawyers for Tischler and the hospital said Fisher’s claims are not valid because no nurse identified as the target of Tischler’s play complained about his alleged antics.

While admitting that Tischler and others on the operating room staff sometimes engaged in “playful” behavior, it was done with the consent of all to combat the stress of the operating room, said John C. Kelly, Tischler’s lawyer.

Kelly said the nurses whom Fisher said endured Tischler’s alleged abuse will testify that they found the doctor’s behavior inoffensive and generally regard him as a gentleman. He said no other nurses among the tightly knit operating room staff of about 20 made sexual harassment complaints about Tischler from 1981 to 1986.

“You are going to hear testimony from the nurses, from the operating room technicians, who are going to come in and tell you Dr. Tischler’s care was exemplary,” Kelly said. “While they will tell you he was occasionally playful, they will tell you his conduct was not offensive to them.”

The operating room, Kelly said, is an “environment where stress is a daily existence. It’s a situation where you are treating people in life-and-death situations. The nurses and technicians are going to tell you that there was a lot of camaraderie and to relieve stress there was occasional hugging and occasional tickling.”

Linda Miller, a lawyer for the hospital, told jurors the hospital did all it could to resolve the dispute between Tischler and Fisher.

After the 1982 hugging incident, the hospital sought to keep the two separated, although there were occasions when emergencies forced them to work together.

Tischler, moreover, refrained from any levity when he saw Fisher approaching him, Miller said.

The trial is expected to last two more weeks.