The Nevada Cancer Institute is fighting back in three lawsuits filed this spring by fired or laid-off workers.
In one case, attorneys for laid-off worker Shamine Poynor are seeking class-action status on behalf of some 150 employees laid off April 8.
This suit says the employees were laid off from the Las Vegas institute without cause or warning in violation of the federal WARN Act requiring 60 days notice of mass layoffs.
The Cancer Institute said the layoffs were needed as part of a restructuring. This was prompted by declines in government funding and donations.
In answering the lawsuit this week, attorneys for the NCI said, among other things, it was exempted from issuing a WARN Act notice because of "unforeseeable business circumstances" and by the act’s "faltering business" exception.
The NCI attorneys concluded by asking that "plaintiff take nothing in this action" and that the NCI be awarded its attorney’s fees and costs.
In a second lawsuit, Meredith Mullins alleged breach of contract after she was fired April 14 but said she didn’t receive severance pay of one year as required by her contract.
Mullins said in her suit she was earning $255,000 per year as "administrative member in residence." She had been hired in 2009 as associate center director, research administration and senior vice president of research operations.
Mullins’ suit also alleges intentional infliction of emotional distress, charging NCI senior management was aware she suffered from cancer and needed medical insurance to cover her cancer treatment – but nevertheless fired her and cut off medical benefits to she and her fiancé. Mullins said in the suit that NCI was aware her fiancé also needs medical treatment and can’t qualify for medical insurance continuation coverage under COBRA.
Attorneys for the NCI responded to the suit by seeking dismissal of Mullins’ claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress and punitive damages.
NCI attorneys said that to survive in court, those claims must involve "extreme and outrageous conduct" and in Mullins’ case that didn’t happen.
"While the circumstances of plaintiff’s and her fiancé's illness are no doubt unfortunate, even taking the allegations in plaintiff’s complaint as true, she has failed to allege sufficient extreme and outrageous conduct to support a claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress," the NCI attorneys wrote in their reply.
To meet this legal standard, Mullins would have had to allege she suffered "severe or extreme emotional distress" – and she did not, the attorneys wrote.
"She has failed to allege any physical injury or illness from the emotional distress or any other type of physical manifestation of emotional distress," the NCI attorneys’ brief said.
In a third lawsuit, Dr. Richard Jacobs charged NCI breached his employment agreement that included a $575,000 salary and eligibility for a $100,000 bonus. Jacobs’ lawsuit says he was wrongly fired a few months before the April layoffs.
Attorneys for the NCI responded by arguing his suit, filed in Missouri, should be dismissed – or moved to Nevada -- because it was filed in the wrong venue. That would make the suit more convenient to defend for NCI, but less so for Jacobs since he lives in Missouri.
It’s unknown when federal judges handling the cases will rule on the pending motions in the case.
The NCI is represented in the suits by the Las Vegas law firm Kamer Zucker Abbott.