Former Rutgers employee gets second chance to pursue whistleblower claim

In the final throes of 2020, a former Rutgers University employee received a second chance to pursue her whistleblower claim. On December 29, the Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division, reversed a superior court’s grant of summary judgment (dismissal without a trial) for the university in a lawsuit filed by a former employee who alleged she was fired in retaliation for lodging a complaint against her supervisor. In the new year, she'll get another chance to pursue the claim.

Facts

Debra Herbe worked as a clinical nurse coordinator in the Child Health Program at Rutgers. On May 22, 2012, she used the university’s anonymous employee hotline to lodge a complaint against her supervisor and a coworker.

Herbe alleged the supervisor enlisted a subordinate to write the supervisor’s application for Rutgers’ graduate nursing program. She claimed the supervisor and the subordinate dodged their work assignment of auditing patient charts for two workdays, preparing the supervisor’s application instead.

Rutgers investigated, concluding Herbe’s claims were “completely founded,” and counseled and/or disciplined the subjects of her complaint. According to Herbe, the coworker then started referring to her as a “mole,” and the supervisor began to: