Bob Young Quoted in “Hospital leader vindicated in long-running defamation, retaliation suit brought by nurses” in Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly

February 5, 2024

A jury has rendered a defense verdict in a lawsuit filed by nine Carney Hospital nurses who were fired in 2011 as part of a house cleaning by the then-brand-new hospital president, Bill Walczak. In the lawsuit, the nurses’ claimed that they were wrongfully discharged due to their alleged whistleblower activity. The nurses also sued for defamation based upon a hospital-wide email and certain press coverage in The Boston Globe following their terminations. Carney Hospital and its owner, Steward Health Care System, were named as defendants in connection with all of the nurses’ claims, and Walczak was named personally as a defendant to the plaintiffs’ defamation claims.

Bob Young represented the defendants in the case, along with Bowditch colleagues Timothy Van Dyck and Ashley Barnes. Bob spoke with Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly about the verdict:

Bob noted that the verdict “clarified that the desire to create a new culture in a workplace is a legitimate reason to take action.” He stated “I think we put on pretty compelling evidence that there was this workplace culture that was just broken, and the president’s decision to start over in that unit was a good one and was something that was just necessary.”

Continue reading “Hospital leader vindicated in long-running defamation, retaliation suit brought by nurses” in Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly (subscription required).