25-2-2024 Ofori v. University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, App. Div. (per curiam) Defendant, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ), appealed a verdict against it in a workplace discrimination action based on racial discrimination brought by plaintiff, Janet Ofori. Plaintiff was a Ghanaian advanced practice nurse. She was employed in the hospital's emergency department. After an incident between plaintiff and her coworker, Barbara Carroll, both filed complaints on the Human Resources hotline.
Although the plaintiff's complaint was initially racially neutral, three days after it was submitted, plaintiff amended it to state that Carroll, a white woman, had told her to "[g]o back from where you came from." Plaintiff's case was rooted in her contention that a biased investigation was conducted, which accepted Carroll's word over plaintiff's word because of race, and that the investigation provided the grounds for the Disciplinary Review Committee determination that plaintiff should be fired.
The appellate court rejected UMDNJ's argument that the trial judge erroneously failed to grant its motion for JNOV. The court opined that because plaintiff failed to demonstrate that it intentionally discriminated against her on the basis of race and/or national origin and failed to show that its reasons for terminating her employment were pretextual. The court further rejected UMDNJ's argument that the jury's verdict constituted a miscarriage of justice, and that the trial judge erred in denying its motion for a new trial.
