Judge rejects radiologist’s attempt to revive lawsuit alleging age bias led to her termination

An appeals court has declined to revive a radiologist’s long-running court battle alleging age bias led to her termination. 

The case dates to July 2019, when breast specialist Claire Hanley, MD, first filed suit against New York City Health and Hospitals Corp. She claimed the country’s largest municipal health system “used false charges about her performance to terminate her appointment and privileges” in 2018. NYCHH also allegedly replaced Hanley, who was 70 at the time, with “a less qualified and experienced radiologist who was approximately 30 years younger,” according to the original complaint.

A U.S. District Court Judge last year declined the health system’s request to issue a summary judgment, instead deeming that a jury needed to decide the matter. Jurors later ruled in the health system’s favor in October 2024, with Hanley entitled to zero damages. 

She appealed shortly after, hoping to overturn the verdict, and an appeals court finally denied the request in a summary judgment issued Thursday, Law 360 first reported. A judge last year also already had dismissed similar claims brought by Hanley against affiliated university SUNY Downstate (formerly the State University of New York Health Science Center at Brooklyn).

“We do not doubt that losing her staff appointment and clinical privileges at [Kings County Hospital], and ultimately her SUNY Downstate appointment, dealt a blow to Hanley’s professional reputation and made it more difficult for her to secure a new position as a radiologist,” the Dec. 18 order states. “But the nonrenewal of her privileges alone is not defamatory…and she has not identified any demonstrably false published statement that ‘impugned’ her ‘professional reputation’…in a ‘sufficiently public’ manner ‘to create or threaten a stigma…’”

Hanley had worked as a radiologist at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn and had an academic appointment at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in the same borough. In May 2018, defendant Patrick J. Hammill, MD, chief of radiology at KCH, removed her clinical responsibilities and placed her on administrative leave pending review by the medical board. He had cited a failed performance evaluation and patient safety concerns, including “potential delay in diagnosis and missed cancer,” according to court records. 

The following month at Hammill’s recommendation, the board decided not to renew Hanley’s clinical privileges or reappoint her to the KCH medical staff. Subsequently, SUNY Downstate also declined to renew her academic appointment. Hanley then sued in July 2019, also naming Neesha Patel, MD, director of breast imaging at KCH, and others as defendants. She accused them of age discrimination and due process violations, which both failed in court. Hanley challenged both summary judgements, seeking to set aside the jury’s verdict.

“Hanley argues that the cumulative effect of errors in the district court’s evidentiary rulings and jury instructions warrants a new trial. We disagree,” Thursday’s order states.