Court Rules in Favor of Nursing Home Aide Fired for Not Praying the Rosary

An activities aide won a lawsuit against her nursing home employer in Diamondhead, Mississippi, for terminating her in September 2009 for not praying the rosary with a resident.

Activities Aide Kelsey Nobach argued that saying the rosary violated her religious beliefs. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, Southern Division, agreed.

While Nobach’s supervisor had already written her up for reasons such as tardiness, nursing home records showed that the supervisor had clearly stated that the cause for termination was not praying the rosary with a resident.

In October, the court ordered Woodland Village Nursing Home Center to pay Nobach nearly $70,000 — $55,200 in compensatory damages, $13,884 in back pay, and $500 in other economic damages, according to an article in McKnight’s Long-Term Care News.

— by Deane Beebe