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Employment-At-Will Affirmed Again

BY ALM Staff
April 01, 2003

The New York Court of Appeals has once again rejected an effort to limit the employment-at-will doctrine in New York, ever so slightly, when it rejected a claim by a physician working for The New York Times that she was inappropriately required to disclose patient medical records in violation of state law, her code of ethical conduct, and various state and federal regulations. Horn v. New York Times, 2003 WL 443259 (N.Y. 2/25/03)

Dr. Sheila Horn was Associate Medical Director of the newspaper's Medical Department. Horn alleged that she was frequently directed by the Times' Legal, Human Resources, and Labor Relations Departments to disclose confidential medical records of employees without the employees' consent. She also claimed that she was instructed to misinform the Times' employees that their on-the-job injuries were not work-related, thereby minimizing the newspaper's workers' compensation claims.

Dr. Horn contacted the State Department of Health and other authorities, and contends that she was advised that these acts violated various laws, ethical provisions, and regulations. For this reason, Horn disregarded the directions she received and refused to share medical records with non-medical staff personnel. Soon thereafter, she was laid off as part of a restructuring of the Times Medical Department.

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