Black Surgeon Wins Bias Suit for O.C. Firing

NEWPORT BEACH —  In one of the largest jury awards for a racial discrimination case in Orange County history, a black surgeon has won a $657,000 verdict against another doctor who hired him, then fired him after 10 days, saying he didn’t want “a nigger” working with him.

The fired surgeon, Dr. Kenneth Bridges, who now lives in Pennsylvania, was pleased with Wednesday’s verdict against Dr. Kihong Kwon, a Fullerton thoracic surgeon who is highly regarded in the medical community.

“I couldn’t be happier,” Bridges said in a telephone interview from his home in Lafayette Hill, a suburb of Philadelphia. “I feel vindicated that the jury believed me. It’s been five years of stress and worry, but in the end it was worth it because the jury was honest and careful.”

Bridges’ attorney, John C. Taylor, said: “We’re extremely pleased with the verdict. My client was extremely embarrassed and humiliated. He told people he was terminated, but didn’t mention the (epithet) incident to his wife or his father until a year ago.”

The verdict was reached Wednesday afternoon after a Superior Court jury deliberated three days after a three-week trial. Retired Judge Henry Shatford from Pasadena presided over the case in Municipal Court in Newport Beach.

With attorney fees and other costs, the award may reach more than $1.2 million, making it one of the largest discrimination awards in Orange County history, said Mark Haslam, publisher of Verdictum Juris, a bimonthly publication of civil awards for the legal community in Southern California.

Neither Kwon nor his attorneys, Dennis K. Ames and Donald R. Beck, returned telephone calls Thursday. It was unknown whether Kwon will appeal the verdict.

Bridges, an instructor in surgery at the Medical College of Pennsylvania for two years, was hired by Kwon in 1986 after answering Kwon’s advertisement in the Journal of Thoracic Surgery.

Taylor said that Kwon, who is one of the most prominent thoracic surgeons in Orange County, worked side by side with Bridges during a dozen or so surgeries. Taylor said that Kwon was the primary surgeon, two other surgeons were first assistants and Bridges was the second assistant surgeon.

“At no time was Kwon ever critical of my client, and at no time did he express any dissatisfaction or did his associates,” Taylor said.

But when Bridges received his first paycheck, it was much smaller than the lucrative salary arrangements both surgeons had agreed upon, Taylor said.

According to the lawsuit, Bridges’ base salary was $170,000 a year, with pay raises of $50,000 per year and a maximum salary cap of $400,000.

When Bridges confronted Kwon about the discrepancy, Kwon told him in a telephone call that he didn’t hire Bridges with “good money” to have him move into Kwon’s “own neighborhood,” Bridges said.

“I’m not going to pay you to move into my neighborhood that took me years to move up into,” Bridges quoted Kwon as saying.

Bridges said he was shocked, and that Kwon gave no explanation for his outburst. However, Bridges said he later learned that when his wife went house hunting, she unknowingly selected a house in Kwon’s neighborhood.

“At the time, Kwon was building this $3-million home in Fullerton,” Taylor said.

During the telephone discussion with Kwon, Bridges said, he replied that his family was simply buying a house comparable to the one they owned in Philadelphia. But Kwon responded, “Why don’t you move back?”

Several days later, Bridges had a face-to-face meeting with Kwon, who told Bridges that he didn’t want to work with “a nigger,” according to Taylor. Bridges was then fired.

“I was humiliated and at my wits’ end,” Bridges said. “I had no job to return to and I couldn’t believe that after all we know about (civil rights) that I could be fired for buying a house in someone’s neighborhood.”

Taylor said that during the trial, several witnesses, including Dr. Robert Firpo, one of Kwon’s associates, and Dr. Frederick Mayer, a San Diego physician, testified that they had heard Kwon joke and make insensitive comments on a number of occasions about Jews, African-Americans, Italians, Mexicans and other ethnic groups.

Kwon’s office manager testified that Kwon referred to Bridges as that “dumb nigger,” or “that nigger,” Taylor said.

Kwon, said Taylor, defended the firing by suggesting that Bridges was an incompetent surgeon who had handled surgical equipment in an unsterile manner, had improperly harvested veins for transplant and had never met Kwon’s surgical standards.

But during the trial, Kwon’s associates testified that Kwon often disrupted procedures by yelling and throwing instruments, Taylor said.

Bridges returned to Pennsylvania where he asked for his previous job back but was denied. He is now in private practice.

“I feel as though the system to judge right and wrong was really helpful,” Bridges said. “It helped for me to talk to the jury. It was well worth it because now he’ll be encouraged to treat people fairly.”