Geisinger Professor With Sick Mother Advances Retaliation Claim

Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine must face an associate professor’s claim that it retaliated against her based on her association with her ailing mother, a Pennsylvania federal judge ruled.

Darina Lazarova says she was approved for extended unpaid leave after her mother fell. Once in Bulgaria, where her mother lived, she was able to find permanent care quickly. But GCSOM reneged on allowing her to return to work, stating her employment would terminate when her leave expired, the suit says.

That plausibly asserts retaliation under the associational discrimination provisions of federal and state disability bias law, the US District Court ...