Former Cedars-Sinai Employee Withdraws Religious Discrimination Lawsuit

A former employee of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center has voluntarily dropped her lawsuit against the hospital after agreeing to arbitration for her claims. The lawsuit, filed in June 2022 at the Los Angeles Superior Court, alleged wrongful termination, disability and religious discrimination, and failure to accommodate. The plaintiff, Myesha Tarvin, originally claimed that she was fired in 2021 due to her religious objection to the hospital’s mandatory flu vaccine requirement, which she believed contained pork products. She also mentioned that a neck injury she suffered in April 2021 played a role in her termination.

However, Tarvin’s attorneys recently filed court papers requesting the dismissal of her complaint “with prejudice,” indicating that it cannot be refiled. On July 22, Judge Michael Stern signed an order affirming the agreement between the parties to resolve the dispute through binding arbitration.

As a Seventh-Day Adventist who avoids pork and pork-containing products, Tarvin had requested a religious exemption for the flu vaccine, which was denied by the hospital. Despite her objection, she was forced to receive the vaccine in 2020. The situation repeated in 2021 when Tarvin was required to receive both the flu vaccine and the coronavirus shot. Once again, she requested an exemption for the flu vaccine based on religious grounds, but it was denied. As a result, she was placed on leave in September 2021 and ultimately terminated in the following month.

The sudden loss of stable employment at Cedars-Sinai has had a significant impact on Tarvin’s financial and emotional well-being. Despite her qualifications and experience, she has encountered difficulties in finding comparable employment.