It may not have been a smart move for a male OR director to invite a female staff nurse over to his house for drinks and to watch the sunset, but it didn't constitute sexual harassment, says a Mississippi appeals court.
Jennifer Frensley, RN, a staff nurse at the North Mississippi Medical Center, claimed in a lawsuit that after she declined an invitation from Michael Denham, RN, the OR director and director of surgical services, he told her to not even bother applying for 2 new nurse manager positions. But appeals court judges have upheld a district court's dismissal of the sexual harassment suit Ms. Frensley filed against NMMC and Mr. Denham.
Ms. Frensley, RN, an NMMC employee since 1991, began working with Mr. Denham in 2005, according to court documents. In August 2007, she suggested the facility's intensive care unit be split into a medical and a surgical division to address the loss of ICU patients to other hospitals because of understaffing at NMMC. Around the same time, she tendered her resignation, citing "frustration with the continuing problems in the ICU." To convince her to stay, Mr. Denham and NMMC President Charles Stokes agreed to provide her with a personal assistant.
On March 12, 2008, Ms. Frensley called Mr. Denham as she left work to update him on the number of patients and the nurse-to-patient ratio. Later that evening, he called her at home. This call, according to court documents, was the core evidence that Ms. Frensley relied on to establish that she was the object of sexual harassment by Mr. Denham.
During the call, he allegedly invited her to his home. According to Ms. Frensley, Mr. Denham urged her to "come over and have some beers with me, have some wine with me and we can sit out here on the deck. It's a beautiful sunset." She testified that she declined the invitation. In her deposition, she testified that his behavior toward her changed after that phone call. She did not report the call to NMMC.
About 5 weeks after the alleged phone conversation, the ICU was split into a surgical and a medical division, prompting the creation of 2 new nurse manager positions. Ms. Frensley testified that Mr. Denham told her not to apply for either new position, as she would not be hired.
After taking a scheduled 2-week vacation in April, Ms. Frensley applied for time off under the Family and Medical Leave Act, citing stress. During her leave, she met with Rodger Brown, NMMC's vice president of human resources, telling him that Mr. Denham had made unwelcome comments and advances toward her intermittently between 2005 and 2008. According to the suit, Mr. Brown asked Ms. Frensley to lodge a formal complaint and provide documentation of the March 12 phone call, but she never did so.
Ms. Frensley ultimately filed suit, alleging that Mr. Denham and NMMC were liable for her failure to be considered for the nurse manager positions, but a district court disagreed, dismissing the case.
Mr. Denham, as well as attorneys for Ms. Frensley and North Mississippi Medical Center, did not respond to requests for comment..
Mark McGraw
