CONCORD — For the second time in two years, Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital has moved to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Timothy Martin, a former administrator of The Woodlands retirement community.
In his 2019 lawsuit, Martin claimed the hospital and its president, Sue Mooney, made details of his firing public when they should have remained private. He asserted that the negative publicity has amounted to a “Google Death” for his professional career.
But in a response filed Jan. 30 in federal court in Concord, APD denied Mooney did anything wrong in 2018 when she sent a memo to residents at The Woodlands and neighboring assisted living facility, Harvest Hill, saying Martin was fired, “because of a pattern of unprofessional conduct.”
The Valley News, which obtained a copy of the memo, reported on his firing and on interviews with former Woodlands employees who said they had complained about physical contact initiated by Martin.
In last week’s response, William Pandolph, an attorney for APD and Mooney, denied almost all of the claims in Martin’s lawsuit, including that Mooney and APD had any malicious intent in sending the memo, or that they did anything “unlawful” by sending it.
He also denied Martin’s claim that the information should have been kept private, and denied that the hospital intruded on Martin’s personal life by sending the memo.
Martin’s lawsuit “fails to allege facts sufficient to state a claim upon which relief can be granted,” Pandolph wrote in the response.
This is the second time the hospital has requested the lawsuit be dismissed. In 2019, Pandolph moved to dismiss all of the claims against APD, Mooney and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health, which oversees APD and was included in Martin’s lawsuit at the time.
But in June 2020, a federal judge granted only part of that motion, dismissing D-HH from the lawsuit entirely, along with one claim against Mooney and APD. The judge’s order did not dismiss claims accusing APD and Mooney of invasion of privacy and breach of contract.
Pandolph said in an interview Wednesday that he filed the formal response last week in hopes of getting the remaining claims thrown out. He declined to discuss the reason for the delay in filing the response.
When reached by phone Wednesday, Martin declined to comment on APD’s response or discuss the impact the memo and his firing from the hospital has had on his life.
However, in his initial complaint, Martin said he “suffered public embarrassment and humiliation” as a result of the termination. He also wrote that he was unemployable after news broke about the memo, and that he had to take part-time jobs that paid $14.50 an hour, a “far cry from the six-figure salary” he earned while working for APD.
Messages seeking comment from Martin’s attorney, Samantha Heuring, were not returned Wednesday.
Anna Merriman can be reached at amerriman@vnews.com or 603-727-3216.