Montefiore Medical Center. Courtesy photo

A state appeals court ruled Thursday that factual issues still exist, and a lawsuit must move forward, in a racial discrimination case in which a former Bronx hospital staff member claims that a medical doctor both gave white employees better assignments than black employees and made disparaging racial remarks, like saying "you people" and "those people," when referring to black people generally.

An Appellate Division, First Department panel reversed a lower court dismissal of plaintiff Marsha Bateman's employment discrimination, hostile work environment and retaliation-focused lawsuit against Montefiore Medical Center. The panel wrote in part that the "dispute turns on whether defendants terminated plaintiff [Bateman] for discriminatory reasons" and that "issues of fact exist as to whether the proffered reason" for firing Bateman—that Bateman failed in many or most of her job requirements—"was pretextual."

Bateman, according to her lawyer in the case, which was lodged in 2011, had worked as an administrative project manager while at Montefiore Medical Center, particularly on a study being conducted there. The attorney, Uwem Umoh of the Umoh Law Firm in Brooklyn, noted Thursday in a phone interview that in addition to Montefiore, the medical doctor has been named as a defendant in the lawsuit. He said the doctor defendant is Dr. Marina Reznik.

The panel on Thursday, which did not give the doctor's first name in its opinion, wrote that Bateman "points to evidence that Dr. Reznik regularly favored white employees over black employees, by giving white employees better assignments while giving black employees undesirable assignments supposedly more consistent with their ethnicity."

Continued the unanimous panel, "Plaintiff also alleges that Dr. Reznik regularly referred to black employees, collectively, in a critical manner clear from context, as 'you people' or 'those people.'"

Bateman further testified, wrote the panel, "that she heard Dr. Reznik mutter, in a critical manner, 'black people,' when chastising plaintiff."

The justices then wrote that, "this evidence raises issues of fact as to whether defendants"— Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx and the other defendants—"terminated plaintiff for invidious reasons."

The panel noted that the defendants had "proffer[ed] a facially legitimate reason for terminating plaintiff, namely, that she failed in many, if not most, of her job requirements, and failed to improve after being given a warning and final chance."

"Viewed as a whole, however," wrote the panel, "we find that issues of fact exist as to whether the proffered reason was pretextual and thus, defendants' motion should be denied to the extent it seeks dismissal of plaintiff's claims for race-based employment discrimination."

The panel of Justices Rolando Acosta, Dianne Renwick, Troy Webber and Ellen Gesmer added that issues of fact also remained regarding whether Bateman had faced a hostile work environment, under the state and city human rights laws, such as "whether plaintiff was disparaged and treated unfairly for months, including being repeatedly subjected to remarks, thinly-veiled and on one occasion express, which slighted black people as a group."

Addressing her retaliation claim, the panel pointed out, in part, that Bateman had alleged that during an interview at the hospital in which she complained about discrimination "the HR officer strongly suggested that plaintiff would be punished for speaking out," and panel noted that she was terminated not long after the interview, which "further supports a finding of causal connection between plaintiff's complaints and her termination," the panel said.

Jean Schmidt, a shareholder at Littler Mendelson in New York, represented Montefiore and the defendants in the appeal, according to the opinion issued Thursday. She did not respond to an email seeking comment.

Umoh, the lawyer for Bateman, declined to comment about the panel's decision.