Heart Surgeon Must Pay the Piper in Bullying Case

In a potentially landmark case involving workplace bullying, a jury in Marion Superior Court on Friday ordered St. Francis Hospital’s chief heart surgeon, Dr. Daniel H. Raess, to pay a former hospital employee $325,000.

The award to Joseph E. Doescher, 44, stemmed from a Nov. 2, 2001, confrontation between the two men during which Raess was accused of screaming and lunging toward Doescher.

Doescher worked at the hospital as a perfusionist, operating equipment that oxygenates the blood during surgery.

The jury declined to award additional punitive damages against Raess in what one expert said was the first workplace bullying case in history.

In his closing statement, Doescher’s attorney Kevin Betz of Betz & Associates, Indianapolis, asked the jury to award his client $324,000 in lost wages and suggested the jury award a greater sum for pain and suffering.

Doescher hugged his wife, Suzie, and son, Nate, moments after the verdict was handed down. Doescher declined to comment. Betz said his client was emotionally exhausted but “extremely pleased with the judgment of the court.”

Attorney Scott Bunnell of Hunt Suedhoff Kalamaros in Fort Wayne, one of two firms retained by Raess, said his client would decide next week whether to take further action in the case. As he entered the elevator to leave the City-County Building, Raess turned and said, “We plan a vigorous appeal.”

The award represents more than 11/2 year’s salary for Raess, who in testimony said he expects to earn $210,000 in 2005 from St. Francis, a Roman Catholic nonprofit hospital in Beech Grove.

This is the first time a workplace bullying case has been heard in the United States, according to Gary Namie, director of the Workplace Bullying & Trauma Institute in Bellingham, Wash. Namie testified on behalf of Doescher.

Laws making workplace bullying illegal have been introduced in the states of Washington and Hawaii, Namie said.

The trial, which was heard in the court of Judge Cale Bradford, began Tuesday and lasted until midafternoon Friday. Jurors deliberated for just more than two hours before returning their verdict.

During his final argument, Betz described Raess as a domineering manager who viewed himself as untouchable and wanted to put Doescher in his place when the perfusionist threatened to tell hospital administrators that Raess had verbally abused other members of his staff.

“It’s not abuse, according to him, to yell and scream and cuss at somebody,” Betz said of Raess. “He was on his throne over there.”

The defense described Doescher as an angry man and active participant in the argument.

“This was a shouting match between two strong-willed individuals who both had a point to make,” said Raess lead attorney Mary Watts, with Bingham McHale in Indianapolis.

Watts said Doescher was suing not to recover emotional damages but to get even.

Betz said Doescher never would have gone through almost three years of litigation to simply fulfill a vendetta. The suit was filed in June 2002.

Doescher, who spent 17 years as a perfusionist at St. Francis and made $100,000 annually, left the hospital after the incident. He now works at a veterinary clinic, cleaning dog kennels for $20,000 a year. Expert psychiatrists called by both sides said Doescher cannot return to a hospital work setting after his experience, although the defense tried to use the testimony about Doescher’s earlier depression and anxiety to discredit his account of the Nov. 2 incident.

“They took their shot at Joe and it all fell off,” Betz said. “The book cover they put on him fizzled like the courage of a bully.”