AHS lawsuit: Mentzelopoulos seeks expedited ruling on the legality of her firing
The former head of Alberta Health Services (AHS) is seeking to expedite her wrongful dismissal lawsuit by asking a judge to focus on the legality of how she was fired, a move that would keep the case from going to trial if granted.
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Athana Mentzelopoulos is suing AHS and the provincial government for wrongful dismissal and seeking $1.7 million in damages.
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On Monday, lawyers for Mentzelopoulos filed an application for summary judgment in Court of King's Bench in Edmonton, alleging that Health Minister Adriana LaGrange orchestrated her Jan. 8 firing by then-deputy minister of health and AHS board member Andre Tremblay, but that both lacked the authority to do so.
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'Only the AHS Board or the executive chair (or) chair had the authority to terminate her employment,' the application states, citing Mentzelopoulos' employment agreement with AHS.
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'Her employment was improperly terminated by Mr. Tremblay acting without AHS authority and solely on the order of Minister LaGrange.'
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The application seeks to narrow the focus of the legal proceedings to if the employment agreement was properly followed when Mentzelopoulos was fired, and is next scheduled to be before a judge on July 15.
In the court documents, Mentzelopoulos newly alleges she was not invited to a Jan. 7 AHS board meeting organized by LaGrange, and that her exclusion led her to believe the meeting was called to have the board terminate her employment.
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Mentzelopoulos claims she learned that LaGrange was unable to convince enough board members at that meeting to fire her, and that the minister told the board she would, 'have Andre do it.'
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'Having failed in her attempt to cause AHS to terminate Mentzelopoulos, Minister LaGrange took it upon herself to do so, making the unilateral decision to require Mr. Tremblay to purport to terminate Mentzelopoulos, even though both he and she knew that he had no authority to do so,' the application reads.
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It states at least three board members, including former Progressive Conservative cabinet minister Lyle Oberg, would support Mentzelopoulos's claims.
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All board members were dismissed on Jan. 31, and Tremblay was announced as the official administrator of AHS. The organization has since seen its scope reduced as part of the government's restructuring of the health care system.
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