AP-HP fined for moral harassment

The Assistance publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP), judged as a legal entity, was sentenced on Wednesday November 15 to a fine of 50,000 euros for moral harassment after the suicide in 2015 of a cardiologist from the hospital Georges Pompidou. “The AP-HP has never opposed what was implemented to isolate the professor [Jean-Louis] Mégnien”declared the president of the court during the deliberations.

This decision is in accordance with the requisitions of the public prosecutor who had requested in July a sentence “measured” arguing that it was a “individual file” and no “institutional harassment”. Mario Stasi, the AP-HP lawyer, called this decision “highly questionable in law and in fact” and D’“incomprehensible”specifying that the institution would appeal.

On the afternoon of December 17, 2015, Jean-Louis Mégnien, a 54-year-old cardiology professor, threw himself out of the window on the 7th floor of the Georges-Pompidou European Hospital. He had returned to work three days earlier, after nine months of sick leave. His wife had filed a complaint with the Paris prosecutor’s office, which opened an investigation for moral harassment, then a judicial investigation in February 2016.

“Mistreatment” and “maneuvers”

Colleagues of this father of five children had reported his “gradual descent into hell” for two years. THE “mistreatment” And “maneuvers” of his superiors so that the position of head of the preventive cardiovascular medicine department that he coveted would escape him and the organization of his “placardization”. They assured that a warning about the suffering of this doctor and his suicidal risks had not been taken into account. “He was deliberately isolated, pushed to make mistakes”underlined the president of the court, “and these acts of harassment only occurred through the collective action of the AP-HP, the director or by teachers”.

The main defendant in this case, Professor Alain S. was sentenced to eight months in prison and a fine of 10,000 euros, as was the former director of the hospital at the time Anne Costa. Two other teachers were also sentenced: four months in prison and a fine of 5,000 euros for the first and a fine of 5,000 euros for the second. Marie Burguburu, who defends Alain S., told AFP that her client was going to appeal.