STATE OF NEW JERSEY VS. FRANKLIN D. NICOLOUDAKIS(07-08-0842, MERCER COUNTY AND STATEWIDE), A-1276-14T4

Gina Marie Miller, a hospital social worker, alleged termination in retaliation for CEPA-protected whistle-blowing and appealed summary judgment dismissing her CEPA claim.
For summary judgment the trial court assumed Miller engaged in protected whistle-blowing (defendants did not contest that on appeal).
Miller had a documented history of chronic attendance and punctuality problems, including multiple written warnings and a final disciplinary notice advising termination if performance did not improve.
After internal HR review, Miller's January 2011 complaint about a manager was not sustained; HR memorialized that the manager apologized and declined further action.
In April–May 2011 Miller was accused of improperly disclosing patient information (HIPAA concern), failing to document patient contacts, and being rude to a patient’s family; these incidents led to termination.
The hospital produced personnel records documenting attendance warnings and the patient-related complaints; Miller’s claimed documentation of consent was not found in the electronic record and defendant showed records could not be deleted.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether Miller established a CEPA claim (prima facie)	Miller engaged in protected whistle-blowing and later was terminated	Hospital contended it had legitimate, nonretaliatory reasons for termination	Court assumed prima facie CEPA satisfied but proceeded to pretext analysis and affirmed dismissal
Whether employer articulated legitimate, nonretaliatory reasons	Miller argued termination was retaliatory, not performance-based	Hospital cited long-standing attendance problems, HIPAA/documentation failures, and patient complaint	Hospital met burden to articulate legitimate reasons; burden shifted back to Miller
Whether hospital’s reasons were pretext for retaliation	Miller asserted reasons were false or excuse for retaliation	Hospital relied on detailed personnel records and contemporaneous complaints	No reasonable jury could find reasons were pretextual; summary judgment affirmed
Causation given time gap between complaint and firing	Miller implied causal link via manager’s participation in firing despite 4-month gap	Hospital showed intervening documented performance and patient-privacy incidents	Temporal gap plus documented misconduct defeated inference of retaliatory motive

Abbamont v. Piscataway Twp. Bd. of Educ., 138 N.J. 405 (remedial purpose of CEPA)
Lippman v. Ethicon, Inc., 222 N.J. 362 (CEPA prima facie elements and burden-shifting framework)
Brill v. Guardian Life Ins. Co. of Am., 142 N.J. 520 (summary judgment standard)
Kolb v. Burns, 320 N.J. Super. 467 (CEPA burden-shifting parallels LAD)
Winters v. N. Hudson Reg. Fire & Rescue, 212 N.J. 67 (employer’s burden to articulate nondiscriminatory reason)
El-Sioufi v. St. Peter's Univ. Hosp., 382 N.J. Super. 145 (prima facie evidentiary burden is modest)
Hitesman v. Bridgeway, Inc., 218 N.J. 8 (requirement to identify specific legal basis for whistle-blowing)