Doctor, 76, Gets Job Back After Age Bias Claim

He may be 76, but don’t mess with Dr. Fulvio Serafini.

Los Angeles County officials learned that the hard way last week, when they settled a wrongful termination claim filed by the orthopedist.

Serafini alleged that he was unjustly fired from his position with the Sheriff’s Department medical services unit in December, principally because of his age.

The county Claims Board approved a settlement that restores Serafini to his old job--with back pay--and awards him an additional $40,000 as compensation for wrongful termination and emotional distress. The board has the authority to settle cases of less than $100,000; larger awards require approval by the Board of Supervisors.

Asked for comment, Serafini didn’t hesitate to say why he fought so hard for his job back at such a ripe age:

“I wanted to work,” he said.

“I feel great,” Serafini added after nurses pried him away from his rounds at the Men’s Central Jail for a moment to speak to a reporter. “I feel that my dignity as a man, as a human being and as a physician has been restored.

“They retired me wrongly,” he said. “They had no reason.”

County lawyers--and the Sheriff’s Department--had recommended the settlement, saying in documents filed as part of the case that they feared a jury could award Serafini far more money if his suit went to trial.

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Serafini contends that he was ordered to resign from his post at a meeting in which sheriff’s officials said they were concerned about what they said was the physician’s forgetfulness and advancing years.

According to documents filed with he county Claims Board, sheriffs’ officials had expressed concern regarding Serafini’s performance, citing--among other things--failure to recall the location of personal belongings.

At the meeting with sheriff’s officials, according to documents filed in the case, the doctor asserts that they yelled at him, coerced him into signing a resignation and even grabbed his identification badge.

Minutes after he signed the form, Serafini changed his mind and asked for his job back, but that request and others that followed were denied.

So Serafini formally filed his claim.

The Sheriff’s Department and the county counsel’s office investigated, and both concluded that Serafini should be reinstated.

“Investigation has shown that Dr. Serafini’s co-workers both respect and compliment his work,” county lawyers concluded. “We believe that there is sufficient evidence for Dr. Serafini to prove that he signed the resignation form under unwarranted duress.”

Claims Board representative Nancy Singer said last week: “Other than that one supervisor [who ordered his resignation], his co-workers and colleagues respect and compliment his work and think he’s a terrific guy.”

Senior Assistant County Counsel Lloyd W. Pellman, the county’s legal representative on the Claims Board, added that the panel was “not informed of any problems with his provision of medical care.”

Pellman said that Serafini’s work was predominantly diagnostic, in that he evaluates the medical problems of inmates and then refers them to county health facilities for care beyond the scope of that offered on-site at county jails.

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In his claim, Serafini said the “unwarranted confrontations” and forced retirement aggravated his preexisting eye and heart conditions, costing him $10,000 in medical bills.

But, last week, a chipper Serafini said he was happy to be working again. Like most days, he said, he was on the job at 8 a.m., diagnosing and taking care of county inmates, and planned to work a full 12 hours.

Serafini is an Italian immigrant who has worked 10 years for the Sheriff’s Department since his retirement from private practice.

He said he plans to work at least another five or six years, or, “until I can’t carry on.”

“I’ve worked all my life,” he said, “and I’m not going to stop just because they told me to stop.”