Facts

Starla Rollins filed suit against the Community Hospital of San Bernardino, Dignity Health, and Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West.

Her employer was dismissed from the lawsuit before summary judgment.

PLAINTIFF's CONTENTIONS:
Rollins was employed by Community Hospital for approximately 24 years before she was terminated on Nov. 9, 2012. In 2007, the hospital began making changes to its clerical staff, and Rollins became concerned that her years of service could be eliminated. Rollins and her union made a proposal to protect her years of service, which the hospital accepted.

In 2011, Rollins began to feel she was being singled out and harassed, and filed a complaint. She was later hospitalized for two weeks due to heart palpitations, and filed a workers' compensation claim. About a month after she returned to work, plaintiff claimed the hospital refused to accommodate her. A few months after that, Rollins was terminated.

Rollins then filed suit for disability discrimination, failure to engage in the interactive process, failure to accommodate disability, failure to take reasonable steps to prevent discrimination, retaliation, wrongful termination, breach of duty, and breach of collective bargaining agreement.

Rollins asserted a breach of the duty of fair representation claim against the Union, alleging that the Union breached its duty of fair representation when it failed to pursue to arbitration a grievance filed on behalf of the plaintiff that challenged her layoff. Plaintiff claimed that the Union refused to take the grievance to arbitration for an arbitrary or bad faith reason.

DEFENDANTS' CONTENTIONS:
The Union contended that plaintiff's grievance lacked merit, and decided not to pursue the grievance to arbitration.

Result

The court dismissed the case, and granted the Union summary judgment.

Other Information

The summary judgment decision is currently up on appeal.