The Labor Court here is dealing with a complaint which will set a precedent on the application of official laws to physicians employed in hospitals.
A Jewish physician who worked in a city hospital until the end of March, 1933, is contesting his dismissal and demands his salary for the three-month period immediately following his discharge.
The Berlin City Council, the defendant in the case, contends it was compelled to dismiss him for good and sufficient reason. It sets forth that it had to close the station at which the plaintiff worked to prevent danger of infection, although plans had long since been made to rebuild it; that it was unable to place him in any other station; and that in those days there was strong feeling in the hospital and among the general population against the large number of Jewish doctors.
ORDERED TO PAY DAMAGES
On the day of his dismissal the physician was removed from the hospital by storm troops. Under these circumstances, the defending City Council claims, it could not assume responsibility for further employment of the plaintiff.
On December 7 the Berlin Labor Court ordered the City Council to pay the amount claimed. The verdict handed down by the court says that according to legislation in force, responsibility for preventing disturbances in the building rests with that party in whose jurisdiction the disturbance arises.
It rules further that before the station was closed down, although it had long been planned to shut it, the plaintiff should have been given other employment, or at least proper notice.
Removal of the plaintiff from the hospital by storm troops and the feeling among the public at that time did not constitute adequate grounds for summary dismissal, the court holds. If the City Council believed it was forced to oust the physician because he was Jewish, it should first have informed itself on the provisions of the official laws, which provide for notice, the judiciary body decrees.
The rabbinical prohibition against bigamy dates from the early eleventh century, but found unquestioned acceptance only in France and Austria.
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