Former medical resident awarded more than $10 million for being forced to take exam on maternity leave

FLINT, MI (FOX 2) - A jury in Genesee County awarded a $10,034,951 judgment to a 42-year-old former medical resident who was fired after being forced to take a licensing exam while on maternity leave.

The woman was fired in April 2021. She had been  in the Ascension Genesys Hospital’s OB/GYN Postgraduate Residency Program. Ascension Michigan and Detroit-based Henry Ford Health merged in 2024, renaming the hospital in Flint to Henry Ford Genesys Hospital. 

As part of the program requirements, residents are required to pass the COMLEX Level 3 examination by the sixth month of their second year of postgraduate training, which for the plaintiff would have been December 2020. Due to testing restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the plaintiff was initially unable to sit for the exam and ended up not passing the exam the first time she took it in September 2020. Both prior to and while the plaintiff was on maternity leave, she requested additional time to re-take the exam after her maternity leave ended, which the defendant denied.

After her termination, the plaintiff retook the exam in June 2021, once she had sufficient time to prepare outside of maternity leave, and passed. Despite passing the exam, the hospital refused to reinstate her to the residency program. Attorneys successfully argued that the defendant knew that she was going to be on maternity leave to give birth and would be unable to sufficiently study for and take the exam while on maternity leave.

"This case involved a clear violation of an employee’s rights under discrimination laws in Michigan," said Morgan & Morgan founder John Morgan. "Because of the hospital’s decision to terminate her, she lost years of future earnings, coupled with severe pain and suffering. We’re pleased that the jury recognized the serious impact that this incident will have on the rest of her life and career and held the defendant accountable."