A Tifton woman won a civil suit against Tift Regional Medical Center last month after the jury determined the hospital acted in bad faith concerning a contract her attorney had reached with TRMC.

Holly Stripling, now Holly Scott, had been employed by Tift Regional for 14 years and was a social worker and director of TRMC’s inpatient rehabilitation unit when she was asked to resign in 2006.

Jurors were asked to consider whether Stripling’s attorney, John Spurlin of Tifton, and Karen Summerlin, a medical negotiation lawyer with the Reinhardt firm, had actually reached an agreement before the hospital broke off negotiations in August 2006. The trial lawyers — John Croley of Fitzgerald representing Stripling and Bill M. Clifton and W. Jonathan Martin II of the Macon firm Constangy, Brooks and Smith representing Tift Regional — agreed that whether Stripling should have been asked to resign was not the issue.

Both Summerlin and Spurlin testified as witnesses and did not act as attorneys during the trial.

According to the court transcript, Stripling hired Spurlin to negotiate on her behalf soon after being asked to resign on July 12, 2006. A copy of a document sent from Spurlin to Summerlin showed that she was asking for her paid days off, including sick leave and vacation days; to be eligible to roll over her retirement accounts without penalty; to be eligible to continue her health insurance coverage for up to 18 months from the date of resignation; and for two months’ salary, to be paid in one lump sum.

She also asked that TRMC refrain from criticizing her job performance and wanted a copy of a letter of recommendation from TRMC for prospective employers.

In exchange, she would refrain from criticizing the hospital, the rehab unit or her employment. She also agreed to “instruct those who have advocated on her behalf to abide by the terms of her agreement,” and TRMC was to instruct its employees to abide by an agreement of confidentiality. Summerlin and Spurlin communicated back and forth with letters and phone calls for several weeks before negotiations apparently broke down. But the jury determined that by that time, the contract had already been made and all that remained to be done was a part of carrying out the contract.

Summerlin said the hospital was willing to recommend Stripling as a social worker only and wanted phone calls from some of Stripling’s relatives to TRMC board members to stop. “As I stated on August 11th, if your client had not executed the documents as I drafted them and transmitted them to you (either with the confidentiality provision as I drafted it or deleted it entirely) by the end of the day, Tift Regional’s offer to compromise was withdrawn and Tift Regional would not continue to negotiate,” Summerlin said in a letter to Spurlin on Aug. 15. “Your letter of August 14, 2006, contained a counteroffer. Tift Regional declines this counteroffer. As I conveyed to you to you on the 11th, Tift Regional declines to negotiate this matter further.”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Judge Richard Porter of Cairo heard the case at the Tift County Courthouse. Many potential jurors were ineligible to serve because they had relatives working at Tift Regional, work there themselves or have some other connection to the hospital, which is one of Tift County’s largest employers.

Once the case went to the jury, it took less than 45 minutes for them to reach a verdict.

Tift Regional plans to appeal, Stripling said, and she has not received any awarded items. She said she believes this is one of only a few cases against TRMC to be won by a plaintiff.

Hospital spokesperson Stacy Beckham said TRMC could not comment on pending litigation.