Herx sues Roman Catholic Diocese

[Gregory Matthews]

In an interesting legal case, Emily Herx, a teacher at a Roman Catholic school alleges that she was fired from her position as a teacher at the St. Vincent de Paul School due to the fact that she was attempting to become pregnant due to in vitro fertilization (IVF) which violates Roman Catholic beliefs.

 

The Church attempted to get the lawsuit dismissed and failed in that attempt and the case went to trial.  That jury trial awarded Ms. Herx the sum of about 1.9 million dollars.    

 

That award has since been reduced to the sum of $543,803.

 

It remains to be seen whether or not the Roman Catholic Church will appeal that decision.

 

In view of the fact that media reports of this case have often contained errors and partial information, I am submitting the following:

 

To Shepard the case, see:  Herx v. Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend   

 

To view a listing of the legal documents and decisions involved go to:

 http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1361846-emily-herx-lawsuit.html

 

  http://indianalawblog.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-search.cgi?IncludeBlogs=1&search=herx

 

To see the ruling that reduced the amount awarded her, go  to:

 

 http://www.journalgazette.net/news/local/courts/Award-in-Herx-case-decreased-4447811

 

In fairness to the Roman Catholic Church and to see some of their thinking, go to:

 

 http://www.aleteia.org/en/education/article/the-real-reason-teacher-emily-herx-was-fired-for-using-ivf-5806364098035712

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

why in the world would she have deliberately informed the parish school officials that she was going to have the IVF procedure when she knew it was against Catholic beliefs?   That was sorta like thumbing her nose at them..

[Gregory Matthews]

One aspect of this issue is that she submitted medical claims to the plan that provided coverage for the medical coverage of she and her husband.

 

When one is provided with medical care by a self-administered plan that comes from one's employer there are issues of privacy.   HIPPA is very strict on medical information that it covers.  I formally worked in a hospital.  HIPPA prevented staff from looking at employee clinical records for just about anything other than direct clinical care.  This is why I once had to inform a physician supervisor that the employee who was falling asleep on the job had been diagnosed with a clinical sleep disorder and needed something other than discipline.  In order for me to do that, I had to obtain written permission from the employee to disclose that information to the physician supervisor. 

 

I am not aware of the protections, if there are any protections, that   may be afforded an employee who is covered by a self-administered medical plan that is run by the employing organization.

 

This reminds me in the far distant past when the self-administered SDA denominational medical plan would refuse to provide any coverage for any treatment of alcoholism.  In that time period, employees an family members would work very hard to keep church officials from knowing that they were seeking treating for alcoholism.

 

As I understand it, things have  changed.

[Gregory Matthews]

Pam, one aspect of the answer to your question is that on one occasion she was being questioned by Catholic clergy who already knew that she had undergone that procedure in the past.  They wanted to know if she intended to undergo it in the future and it had been a failure in the past.  She informed them t hat she intended to try again.   If she had lied, they probably would have  found out.  Essentiallyl, she had to give them an answer.