Paying Agreed-Upon Compensation Isn't Brain Surgery: LLF's Alex Passo Obtains Six-Figure Settlement For Wrongfully Withheld Pay for Neurosurgeon

The details may differ, the terms may vary, and the parties’ mutual duties, responsibilities, and expectations may be distinct, but all employment relationships come down to one fundamental principle: pay the worker the agreed-upon amounts for performing the work they were hired to do. This is the law, plain and simple, whether applied to an at-will minimum-wage employee or to a respected and in-demand neurosurgeon who was lured away from a coveted academic position with promises that ultimately went unfulfilled, and representations that turned out to be untrue.

It was this latter circumstance Alex Passo was called upon to rectify, and he did precisely that in a recent settlement package in which the client received100% of his unpaid compensation.

As noted, LLF’s neurosurgeon client was heavily recruited by a hospital that was in desperate need of a physician with his particular talents, skills, and credentials. After the hospital assured him that he had met all the medical credentials and would be placed on a long tenure track position, the surgeon accepted the position and entered into an employment contract with the hospital.

Upon starting in his position, the doctor focused his efforts on building the hospital’s neurosurgery program, in addition to working extra call hours as a continuous backup for complex brain cases and 100% complete spine call coverage for both the clinic as well as for the trauma call coverage and operating on all complex brain tumors and 100% spine patients (clinic and trauma call) for a pediatric neurosurgeon with privileges at the hospital.

The firm’s client worked these extra call hours with the understanding that the hospital would compensate him in accordance with his employment contract, which stated that the hospital agreed to pay him for each 24-hour period of extra call that he works in excess of his normal work hours.

For several years while working for the hospital, the client worked call care as support to the pediatric neurosurgeon in addition to the call care that he was already scheduled. Specifically, the hospital scheduled him for call care ten days each month, which he worked. The hospital also scheduled the pediatric neurosurgeon for call care ten days each month, for which the client also worked call care, given that he was relied upon for all cases involving spine and neck trauma injuries. For 19 months, the client worked ten days of additional call each month for 190 total days of “Additional Call.” Nevertheless, the hospital failed to pay the neurosurgeon for any of the additional call care he performed and shortly thereafter terminated him on false and pretextual grounds.

Not only was the client wrongfully terminated and not paid for the additional call care he performed, but the hospital also failed and refused to compensate him for accrued and earned vacation pay. What was particularly egregious was that the doctor performed and billed for work on these on call periods that no other neurosurgeon on staff had privileges to perform. After departing, in similar contexts, the hospital had to rely upon and pay a private third-party neurosurgery group to cover this coverage gap.

In the ensuing lawsuit against the hospital for breach of contract, violation of the Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act, and other claims, Passo was able to negotiate a settlement package that made the client whole (and then some). The result is particularly notable because LLF substituted into the case a few weeks before arbitration was set to proceed due to unforeseen health conditions of the client’s prior attorney. Original settlement offers were not near six-figures; however, after working up the case more and preparing it for trial, the case was resolved very favorably for the client.

The firm congratulates Alex on the tremendous result he obtained for our client.