The Assistance publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP), judged as a legal entity, was sentenced on Wednesday to a fine of 50,000 euros for moral harassment after the suicide in 2015 of a cardiologist from the Georges Pompidou hospital. “The AP-HP has never opposed what was implemented to isolate Professor (Jean-Louis) Mégnien,” declared the president of the court during the deliberations.
This decision is in accordance with the requisitions of the public prosecutor, who in July called for a “measured” sentence, arguing that it was an “individual file” and not “institutional harassment”. Mario Stasi, the AP-HP’s lawyer, described this decision as “highly questionable in law and in fact” and “incomprehensible”, specifying that the institution would appeal.
“He was deliberately isolated, pushed to make mistakes”
On the afternoon of December 17, 2015, Jean-Louis Mégnien, a 54-year-old cardiology professor, threw himself out of the window on the 7th floor of the Georges-Pompidou European Hospital. He had returned to work three days earlier, after nine months of sick leave. His wife had filed a complaint with the Paris prosecutor’s office, which opened an investigation for moral harassment, then a judicial investigation in February 2016.
Colleagues of this father of five had reported his “gradual descent into hell” over the past two years. The “mistreatment” and “maneuvers” of his superiors so that the position of head of the preventive cardiovascular medicine department that he coveted would escape him and the organization of his “plasterization”. They assured that a warning about the suffering of this doctor and his suicidal risks had not been taken into account. “He was voluntarily isolated, pushed to make mistakes”, underlined the president of the court, “and these acts of harassment only occurred through the collective action of the AP-HP, the director or by teachers”.
“A strong sign sent to the medical world”
“The court took the exact measure of the seriousness of the facts” and underlined “the collective nature of the harassment which involved an entire hierarchical line up to the legal entity”, reacted to AFP Christelle Mazza, lawyer for the professor’s family. “This is a strong signal sent to the medical world and to the hospital institution. »
The main defendant in this case, Professor Alain S. was sentenced to eight months in prison and a fine of 10,000 euros, as was the former director of the hospital at the time Anne Costa. Two other teachers were also sentenced: four months in prison and a fine of 5,000 euros for the first and a fine of 5,000 euros for the second. Marie Burguburu, who defends Alain S., told AFP that her client was going to appeal.