Judgement of $803,000 in Anti-jewish Discrimination Case

A federal judge who had awarded two Jewish members of the faculty of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston $394,514 damages earlier this year because of the anti-Jewish discrimination of that institution, has now handed down his final judgement.

Judge James DeAnda added almost $100,000 in interest to the physicians and $297,000 in attorney fees to the law firm of Nelkin and Nelkin of Houston, which represented the clients, according to Boycott Report, issued by the American Jewish Congress. The Report said that this is the largest judgement ever awarded in the U.S. in a case of anti-Jewish discrimination.

DeAnda found that Baylor College had entered into an agreement with King Faisal Hospital under which Baylor was to send cardiovascular surgical teams to the hospital in Saudi Arabia on a rotating basis for a three-month assignment. The Saudis reimbursed Baylor for the salaries of the surgical teams sent to their kingdom.

Baylor admitted that it had not assigned the plaintiffs, Dr. Lawrence Abrams and Dr. Stuart Linde, qualified anesthesiologists with the respective ranks of associate and assistant professor, because they were Jews, the Report noted. It had assumed that the Saudis would not grant entry visas to Jews.

The court found that the Saudis had never told Baylor not to assign Jewish doctors to the rotation programs nor did the contract with Baylor call for such discrimination. The Jewish doctors were, therefore, victims of a discriminatory scheme imposed by Baylor and not the Saudis. DeAnda’s ruling also directed Baylor to grant Linde “preference forthe next available rotation” in the program.

The Boycott Report said it is not know whether Baylor, which was represented at the trial by the firm of Jaworski and Fullbright, will appeal.