Ex-hospital workers sue Houston Methodist alleging wrongful termination for refusing vaccines

Sixty-two former employees of Houston Methodist hospital, Methodist hospital system and Houston Methodist-The Woodlands filed a lawsuit Monday alleging they were illegally terminated because they refused to get vaccinated for COVID-19.

The lawsuit filed in Montgomery County District Court by Houston-based attorney Jared Woodfill comes months after a prior lawsuit opposing the hospital's mandate was rejected.

Houston Methodist and The Woodlands Hospital issued a policy in April “requiring mandatory immunization of all covered Houston Methodist (HM) employees.” Employees were required to receive two COVID shots by June 9 or be fired. In an email to employees after the mandatory vaccine deadline lapsed, CEO Dr. Marc Boom said, “I wish the number could be zero, but unfortunately, a small number of individuals have decided to not put their patients first.”

Woodfill told Just The News that he filed the suit because his clients “faithfully and fearlessly were on the frontlines during the height of the pandemic fighting the coronavirus. And many of them contracted Covid knowing the risk they were taking caring for their patients. As a thank you, Methodist awarded them a pink slip when they refused to participate in a vaccine trial.”

Unlike a previous lawsuit Woodfill filed in May, this lawsuit argues that the hospitals violated the Sabine Pilot exception to the employment-at-will doctrine, which was established by the Texas Supreme Court in 1985.

In Sabine Pilot v Service, Inc. v.  Hauck, the Texas Supreme Court created a public policy exception to the employment-at-will doctrine. The exception allows employees to sue for wrongful termination if they are fired for the sole reason that they refuse to perform an illegal act. They must first be asked to perform an illegal act, refuse to do it, and then be fired in order to file the claim, according to the court. In another case a few years later, the court extended the exception to a situation when the employee inquires into the legality of the work requirement.

Because federal law requires that emergency use authorization (EUA) medications, like the vaccine, only be voluntary and not mandatory, receiving them against their will or through coercion violates federal law. Because they refused to take EUA drugs and were fired, they argue they were wrongfully terminated.

Likewise, an executive order issued by Gov. Greg Abbott, GA-35, requires an exemption to the employment-at-will doctrine for those who are fired for refusing to receive a EUA drug.

Boom’s “passive-aggressive swipe at those who opted out of taking the experimental non-FDA approved COVID-19 vaccine extends also to the medical community at large in Houston,” the lawsuit states.

“Many other hospital systems do not have a vaccine mandate. Are these hospital systems failing to ‘put their patients first?’ The answer is ‘no,’ because there is no failure. If this were truly about putting patients first, every single hospital system, medical provider, facility, clinic, and office would have banded together to mandate vaccines. Yet, there stands Methodist Hospital, claiming it is unique in ‘putting patients first.’ At the middle of this public relations stunt are the plaintiffs in this lawsuit.”

The suite highlights data reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (“VAERS”), a voluntary reporting system, which only accounts for one percent of vaccine injuries, as a cause for concern among those who chose not to take the EUA shots. As of July 30, 2021, the number of deaths and hospitalizations linked to those who received the COVID shots, were 12,366 deaths and 46,036 hospitalizations.

By comparison, from July 1, 1997, until December 31, 2013, VAERS only received 666 adult death reports for all vaccines.

After 50 percent of the adult U.S. population has received both doses of the shots, morbidity reported to the Centers for Disease Control and verified with a permanent VAERS number include 68,040 urgent care visits, 92,527 office visits, 4,759 cases of anaphylaxis, 4,044 cases of Bell’s Palsy, 12,194 life threatening events, 5,236 heart attacks, 3,728 cases of myocarditis/pericarditis, 2,269 cases of thrombocytopenia/low platelet, 1,381 miscarriages, 23,354 severe allergic reactions, and 14,251 disabling illnesses.

Based on this data, the brief states, “one wonders whether CEO Boom is risking employees becoming patients that Methodist can ‘put first.’”

Woodfill said he is hopeful the Texas Supreme Court will ultimately right their wrongful termination “and protect and medical autonomy every Texan enjoys.” 

Boom said Monday he was “not surprised” by the lawsuit.

“It just seems to completely rehash the other lawsuit, which was very clearly and definitively overturned and dismissed by Judge Hughes,” Boom said. “We would expect the same thing in this case.”

Woodfill has appealed Hughes’ ruling and said he intends on taking the case against Houston Methodist all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

After Houston Methodist was the first to issue its vaccine mandate, several Houston-area hospitals also implemented their own, including Baylor College of Medicine, Memorial Hermann, Texas Children’s Hospital and St. Luke’s Medical Center.