Whitaker v. Advantage RN, L.L.C.

2012 Ohio 5959
Ohio Court of Appeals·Decided December 17, 2012·No. CA2012-04-082·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS

TWELFTH APPELLATE DISTRICT OF OHIO BUTLER COUNTY

GREGORY M. WHITAKER, :

Plaintiff-Appellant, : CASE NO. CA2012-04-082

: OPINION - vs - 12/17/2012 :

ADVANTAGE RN, LLC, et al., :

Defendants-Appellees. :

CIVIL APPEAL FROM BUTLER COUNTY AREA III COURT Case No. CVF 0900273

Gregory M. Whitaker, 7042 Cliffstone Drive, Huber Heights, Ohio 45424, plaintiff-appellant, pro se

Coolidge Wall Co., L.P.A., Richard A. Talda, 33 West First Street, Suite 600, Dayton, Ohio 45402, for defendant-appellee

YOUNG, J.

{¶ 1} Plaintiff-appellant, Gregory Whitaker, appeals pro se a decision of the Butler County Area III Court granting summary judgment to defendants-appellees, Advantage RN, LLC (ARN), Matthew Price, and Brandon Reynolds.1

{¶ 2} ARN is a company that provides travel nurses to medical institutions in the

1. When necessary, ARN, Price, and Reynolds will be referred collectively as appellees.

United States. Price is the President and CEO of the company. Reynolds is an employee of the company working as a travel nurse recruiter. On December 22, 2008, appellant entered into a written contract with ARN. Under the contract, appellant was to work for 13 weeks in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Pitt County Memorial Hospital (Pitt Hospital) in Greenville, North Carolina. The contract stated in relevant part:

Traveler agrees Advantage RN (ARN) will not guarantee this assignment if background check and/or drug screen is returned with any derogatory statements. Traveler understands that it is his/her responsibility to comply with the Quality Assurance standards of the assigning hospital and ARN standards to be completed and ready to be sent to assigning hospital one week prior to start of assignment or as requested by the Quality Assurance Department. If Traveler or client terminates this agreement for no fault of ARN but based on actions of the Traveler, then Traveler agrees to reimburse all contractual expenses obligations, including but not limited to the housing and transportation costs, Quality assurance costs related to this assignment.

{¶ 3} Pitt Hospital required its new nurses to pass a Performance Based Development System (PBDS) examination before being able to work for the hospital (the agreement between ARN and Pitt Hospital for appellant's travel nursing services stated, "Must pass PBDS"). ARN provided appellant with study materials and assigned two nurses to coach him for the test. Appellant took the test on January 20, 2009. Pitt Hospital advised ARN that appellant had failed the test and consequently terminated its agreement with ARN. In turn, ARN terminated its contract with appellant. Subsequently, appellant demanded that ARN reimburse him for the expenses ($1,001.96) he incurred in preparing for the assignment with Pitt Hospital and in traveling to North Carolina to take the test. ARN rejected his demand.

{¶ 4} In February 2009, appellant filed a claim in the Butler County Area III Court, Small Claims Division, seeking $1,001.96 in damages. Following the transfer of the case to the court's regular civil docket, appellant filed an amended complaint alleging breach of

contract, misrepresentation, and fraud, and seeking $12,168 in damages. In January 2010, appellees moved for summary judgment; six months later, appellant moved for summary judgment.

{¶ 5} On September 23, 2010, the magistrate denied the parties' motions for summary judgment on the breach of contract claim, granted summary judgment in favor of appellees with regard to misrepresentation and fraud, and dismissed Price and Reynolds as individual defendants. Specifically, the magistrate found that (1) as employees of the company, Price and Reynolds were acting within their scope of employment and thus, could not be personally liable on the contract, and (2) there was insufficient evidence of misrepresentation or fraud.

{¶ 6} With regard to the breach of contract claim, the magistrate denied the motions for summary judgment on the grounds neither party had direct evidence of the test results; further, the testimony of Price and Reynolds that appellant failed the test constituted inadmissible hearsay. Finding it was imperative that direct evidence of the test results be presented, the magistrate allowed the parties to supplement their summary judgment motions to provide such evidence. Subsequently, in response to an interrogatory propounded by appellant, Pitt Hospital stated that with regard to the PBDS test, appellant "[d]id not meet expectation for problem management."

{¶ 7} Based on Pitt Hospital's answers to interrogatories, appellant moved to vacate the magistrate's September 23, 2010 entry with regard to the misrepresentation claim. Appellant argued that (1) the PBDS test he took was not a pass/fail test, (2) ARN did not pay for the test, (3) appellant was given the wrong materials to study and was coached on the wrong subject (a Med/Surg PBDS exam rather than an ICU PBDS exam), and (4) these issues were misrepresented by appellees. On August 24, 2011, the magistrate denied appellant's motion:

The Court is of the opinion from the answers provided by the hospital that [the] hospital did not believe the Plaintiff was a qualified candidate for their position. It was indicated that the Plaintiff did not meet the qualifications the hospital wanted.

Regardless of the other positions, the Court finds that the hospital made the determination not to hire, that the Defendants had nothing to do with it nor did they misrepresent their position.

Whether they believe it was a pass/fail test, it obviously would qualify as such a test in the Court's opinion. The Court wonders what possible motives the Defendants would have in misrepresenting or interfering with the Plaintiff's employment.

Thus, the Court finds that there are no genuine issues of material fact which the Plaintiff can establish as listed in his Complaint and hereby rules in favor of the Defendants on the Motion for Summary Judgment and against the Plaintiff on the Motion to Vacate.

{¶ 8} Appellant filed objections to the magistrate's foregoing entry. Appellant argued that because the PBDS test was not a pass/fail test, there was no proof he actually failed the test. In addition, he had met all of ARN standards and was qualified to work as an ICU nurse in North Carolina. Thus, ARN breached its contract with appellant when it terminated the contract. Appellant also argued that Price and Reynolds were liable for misrepresentation.

{¶ 9} On November 8, 2011, the trial court overruled appellant's objections, overruled his motion for summary judgment, and granted summary judgment in favor of appellees on all issues:

The contract [between ARN and appellant] was quite clear that it was incumbent upon Whitaker to meet the standards promulgated by [Pitt Hospital] before he could be hired by that hospital. The record is clear that Whitaker did not meet the appropriate standards issued by the hospital, whether those standards are characterized as "pass/fail" or some other indication that Whitaker was not suitable to be hired by the hospital. The mere fact that Whitaker may have been a licensed registered nurse in North Carolina is insufficient to require the hospital to hire him when he did not measure up to their standards. In any event, ARN has no control over the hospital's hiring process, and the contract was clear that it was Whitaker's "responsibility to comply with the Quality Assurance standards of the assigning hospital."

ARN is entitled to summary judgment because Whitaker did not meet the specified standards promulgated by Pitt. His failure to meet those standards relieved ARN of any obligation it may have had towards Whitaker under the contract. Further, there is no evidence that [Price and Reynolds] were ever acting outside the scope of their employment in their contacts with Whitaker. As such, they cannot have personal liability under the contract.

{¶ 10} Appellees subsequently moved for an award of attorney fees and costs.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Whitaker v. Advantage RN, L.L.C., 2012 Ohio 5959 (Ohio Ct. App. 2012).

2012 Ohio 5959 (Whitaker v. Advantage RN, L.L.C.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Roberts v. United Dairy Farmers
2014 Ohio 3881 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2014)
Roberts v. United Dairy Farmers, Inc.
2014 Ohio 3881 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2014)
New Falls Corp. v. Pierson
2014 Ohio 567 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2014)