Kidney donation postpones trial

Kidney donation postpones trial

By Tim Hrenchir

Updated October 4, 2010 at 11:45pm

To give a key witness time to donate a kidney, a federal judge has pushed back the trial date in a former Topeka city employee's lawsuit against the city.

District Judge Carlos Murguia issued an order last week granting a continuance and rescheduling the jury trial in John Tiffany's suit against the city for Nov. 1.

Assistant city attorney Eric Smith had requested the postponement, which he said was necessary because Corrie Lynn Wright — a manager in the city's department of housing and neighborhood development — would be unavailable from Sept. 27 to Oct. 18 so she could undergo surgery to donate a kidney and have sufficient time to recover.

Murguia in March had scheduled an Oct. 4 trial to be held in Kansas City, Kan., in the suit Tiffany filed in May 2009 against the city, for which Tiffany started work with the HND department on Jan. 14, 2008.

The lawsuit petition Tiffany filed in U.S. District Court said he informed his supervisor, Kevin Rooney, on Feb. 22, 2008, that a physician had diagnosed him with brain cancer.

The petition said Tiffany requested reasonable accommodations for his disability from the city, which refused the request and responded in a retaliatory, threatening and/or harassing manner.

Tiffany was terminated from his job due to his disability on Feb. 26, 2008, the petition contends.

In a letter dated Sept. 7, Smith told Murguia the city might seek postponement of the Oct. 4 trial to ensure Wright would be available to testify.

He wrote: "Ms. Wright is on a national kidney donation registry and she has been contacted that she is a match for someone in need of transplant. The tentative time for the transplantation is the last week of September and the recovery time would be approximately three to four weeks. This obviously would make her unavailable for trial starting Oct. 4."

Smith then filed a motion Sept. 23 seeking a continuance of the trial.

The motion stressed that Wright was the only employee who worked in the same office as Tiffany who remains with the city.

"Kevin Rooney, who was plaintiff's direct supervisor, has retired from his employment and is no longer available to act as corporate representative," the document said. "Ms. Wright is the only person who can assist counsel for the defendant in countering testimony that may be brought up by the plaintiff during trial."

Wright was involved in training Tiffany, the motion added.

"Because this is a fact issue, it is critical to the defense that the jury be able to observe Ms. Wright's demeanor to render a credibility decision," it said.

The motion was accompanied by an affidavit from Wright indicating she was contacted by Loyola University Medical Center Sept. 22 and informed her kidney was a match for someone in need of a transplant.

It also was accompanied by a note from Dr. John Milner, director of the living donor program at Loyola Medicine in Maywood, Ill., confirming the 34-year-old Wright would be unavailable from Sept. 27 to Oct. 18 due to "a surgical procedure."

Smith's motion indicated the city would suffer if Wright weren't available for the trial, yet it couldn't morally or ethically forbid her from donating a kidney.

The motion added that Tiffany would not suffer from a postponement of the trial. It said he's been working fulltime since January and "it is reported that his treatment continues to be successful."

Court records show Murguia — over Tiffany's objection — granted the city's request for a continuance in the case on Sept. 27.

Tim Hrenchir can be reached at (785) 295-1184 or tim.hrenchir@cjonline.com.

http://cjonline.com/news/2010-10-04/kidney_donation_postpones_trial