Attorneys for a former USC doctor suing the university for retaliation want to file an amended complaint on his behalf that would additionally add claims for wrongful termination and defamation given his firing occurred after he filed suit.
Dr. Antreas Hindoyan is suing USC, Keck School of Medicine of USC and Dr. Vivian Y. Mo. The board-certified cardiologist alleges he was required to participate in a $14,000 remedial program, experienced a reduction of clinical duties and denied a $100,000 merit raise in retaliation for opposing Mo’s appointment as interim chief of cardiology, an assignment he believed was based on her gender and Asian ethnicity.
Since the lawsuit was filed last Aug. 13, Hindoyan was terminated for poor performance, an allegation he denies and is defamatory because he has had to repeat and confront the reason when family members, colleagues, credentialing bodies and
prospective employers ask him why he was let go.
Hindoyan says he was told of his job loss during a brief meeting with senior USC leadership on Nov. 21 and that management only gave “vague and disputed allegations of performance issues.”
“These claims are not only proper, they are necessary to fully and accurately plead defendants’ unlawful course of conduct,” Hindoyan’s lawyers argue in their court papers filed Friday with Judge Robert B. Broadbelt, who on July 28 is scheduled to hear the motion to amend the complaint.
Attorneys for USC, Keck and Mo have denied Hindoyan’s original allegations, which include whistleblower retaliation, harassment and both gender and race discrimination. Hindoyan is Armenian. The defense lawyers contend the claims are barred by the statute of limitations and they also have filed a motion to compel arbitration that is scheduled for hearing June 23.
Hindoyan suit states that he was once a “rising star” within the cardiovascular division. But in 2019, Mo, the interim chief of cardiovascular medicine and later chief medical officer of Keck Care, took over as supervisor of the plaintiff’s clinical, research and teaching activities, the suit further states.
From the outset of their professional relationship, Mo made it “unmistakably clear” that she disfavored male interventional cardiologists from the era of a former chief of cardiovascular medicine, Dr. Ray V. Matthews, and that she wanted to advance other doctors at Hindoyan’s expense, the suit alleges.
In 2009, when Mo had direct influence over Hindoyan’s cardiovascular fellowship application, she told the plaintiff, “You don’t have what it takes to be a cardiologist,” according to the suit.
The then-chair of medicine praised Hindoyan’s work, but in 2019 he removed Matthews and promoted Mo, saying, “USC will be proud of me, she’s a female and she’s Asian,” according to the suit, which further states that Hindoyan objected to Mo’s appointment because he believed that it was based on gender and race rather than her qualifications. Hindoyan also said that he still backed Matthews.
Hindoyan contends that Mo began retaliating against him and in June 2024 accused him of doing “half-ass work” in a non-urgent patient-care situation while he was off duty. He says his complaints about the alleged backlash were given no meaningful response.
After a third investigation ordered against Hindoyan in five years, a volume no other female and non-Armenian USC cardiologist has faced, he was denied a promised $100,000.00 merit raise that was set to start last July 1, the suit states.
Before his firing, Hindoyan was stripped of core responsibilities and lived under the constant threat of baseless investigations while remaining and in fear of losing both his position and his license, all because he is male, of Armenian ancestry and opposed Mo’s alleged discriminatory actions against him, the suit states.