Prison Doctor Awarded $20 Million in Age Case

A Los Angeles jury has awarded $20 million to an 85-year-old man who said he was forced to retire as chief physician and surgeon at Lancaster state prison because of his age.

The award included $1.6 million in past and future lost earnings, an indication that jurors believed a plaintiff’s expert who testified at trial that Dr. Robert Johnson could have worked until he was 96.

The state Department of Corrections plans to appeal the case “based on the excessive nature of the dollar amount,” said department spokesman Todd Slosek.

Most of the money awarded to Johnson was for emotional distress. The jury found Monday that Johnson’s supervisors had subjected him to age discrimination, retaliation and harassment. Superior Court Judge Aurelio Munoz presided over the month-long trial.

When Johnson refused to voluntarily retire in August 2001, his supervisors complained to the state Medical Board that the physician suffered from memory loss that impaired his work, said Johnson’s lawyer, Ralph B. Wegis. Johnson was investigated and cleared of that allegation.

Lawyers for the state said requiring Johnson to undergo a fitness test and then asking the Medical Board to investigate Johnson’s medical status did not equate to hostile job actions. They denied that Johnson was treated differently because of his age. They said he was offered other jobs but declined to take them.

Johnson’s lawyer said his client was called into a meeting in August 2001 that opened with a colleague asking: “Dr. Johnson, you’re over 80 years old, why are you still working?”

A few moments later, Johnson’s supervisor suggested that the staff wanted to throw Johnson a retirement party, although the surgeon said he had no plans to leave his job, according to the lawsuit.

“He doesn’t take the hint,” Wegis said. “He was resistant.”

The lawyer said the Medical Board investigation ended Johnson’s career. “His medical practice life is over because you are uninsurable and not hirable because, even though cleared, every application asks if you have ever been investigated by the Medical Board,” Wegis said.