On Tuesday a case was removed from the Court of Common Pleas of Delaware County, Ohio to the Southern District of Ohio. The case was originally filed against the Anthem Companies, Inc. by an ex -employee, and alleges wrongful termination.
The plaintiff was employed by the defendant for 12 years, per the complaint, starting as a customer service representative and advancing to Customer Service Manager 2. In this role, the plaintiff said they supervised over 400 vendor representatives and agents from three different lines of business. This role required the evaluation and tracking of employee use of programs.
In this role, the plaintiff participated in a survey regarding the functionality of the Sailpoint program. Believing the survey to be an internal survey, the plaintiff provided a thorough evaluation of the product’s use and pointed out several flaws in training, ability to properly use the system, and concerns regarding laws including consumer data, personal health information, and other protected categories of information.
However, the complaint explained that the survey was actually an external compliance audit and the plaintiff’s response contributed to the company receiving a negative audit finding. The plaintiff explained that the survey appeared to be internal to the company representative, but was fired for falsifying records when using Sailpoint system. The plaintiff claims this reason was pretextual and that she was wrongfully terminated for an honest mistake.
Plaintiff is suing for wrongful termination and promissory estoppel. Plaintiff is represented by Spadafore Law, LLC. Defendants are represented by Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease.
