KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (CN) - A doctor is entitled to $49,500 in severance pay, despite taking a clock, a plant, an office organizer and some file shelves from his office after he was fired, the Tennessee Court of Appeals ruled.
Dr. Donald Chamberlain and Chattanooga Gyn-Ocology LLC claimed Dr. Stephen DePasquale breached his severance agreement by taking the items after agreeing to "keep the furniture, but not the equipment or computer" and by acting in an allegedly unprofessional manner. As a result, the medical practice refused to pay his severance.
The court held that DePasquale had not breached the agreement, because Chamberlain had given him the clock, and the other items were of "negligible value."
The judges added that DePasquale had not acted unprofessionally when he urged a nurse to file a criminal complaint after she told him that Dr. Chamberlain had thrown a dirty sponge at her.
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