Jones v. All The Little Things Count, LLC., No. 4:2015cv03163 - Document 13 (S.D. Tex. 2016)
Court Description: OPINION on Dismissal. Jones's claims will be dismissed with prejudice. (Signed by Judge Lynn N. Hughes) Parties notified. (ghassan, 4)
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Jones v. All The Little Things Count, LLC. Doc. 13 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS United States District Court Southern District of Texas ENTERED Nicole Marie Jones, Plaintiff, 'Versus All the Little Things Count, LLC., Defendant. January 06, 2016 § § § § § § § § § David J. Bradley, Clerk Opinion on Dismissal I. On October 9, 2.oI5,]ones applied to proceed as pauper and represented that she was pro se. Unbeknownst to the court, Jones had received substantial assistance in preparing her complaint from an attorney. The court granted her application and then summarily dismissed her claims. Jones's "newly appearing" attorney then moved for reconsideration. The court vacated its dismissal to give Jones the opportunity to be heard by (a) amending her complaint, and (b) setting a conference. After a conference that lasted over one hour,]ones has been heard - thrice. She has substantiated none of her causes of action against All The Little Things Count, liC. 2.. FromJuly I 7, 2.008, until MarchI 7, 2.0 I 5, Nicole Marie Jones worked for Little Things as a home-care provider for patients who receive Medicaid benefits. Starting in 2.009, J ones worked exclusively with one severely autistic client. She says she developed a close relationship with him and his family. The mother of the client was the commissioner of a sports league and, eventually,]ones officiated for it for pay. She says that the family never complained about her job performance. 3. Starting in 2.0n, Little Things Count did not always pay Jones promptly for all of her services because she billed more hours than her Medicaid classification permitted - she was a full-time employee, and Medicaid would only pay for forty hours of care per week. If she demanded payment for more than forty hours, the company would have to cover the price of the non-billable hours for the patient. Jones, after the first request for payment for non-billable hours, contacted the chief operating officer of Little Things, Dockets.Justia.com Sandra Graves. The company promptly paid her. In February lOI4, she again demanded payment for 14 to l6 non-billable hours. She was not promptly paid. 4. On March II, lOI 5, Jones told Shamar Fletcher, the Consumer Services Director at Little Things, that if she was not paid for her extra hours she would complain to the Department of Labor. She also arranged with the client to take time off to complain; she did not tell Little Things of the arrangement. On March 16, lOI5, she did not report to work. On March 17, she was fired for cause. Jones spends several pages in her amended complaint and spent a great deal of time at the conference asserting that she was not always paid on time; however, she concedes that she was paid - in full- for the hours she worked while employed by LittleThings. 5. In a lengthy termination memorandum, Little Things explained thatJ ones was fired for: (a) repeatedly violating protocol by arranging for times off from work without notifying it to ensure a replacement was available; (b) working more hours than insured by her patient's Medicaid plan; and (c) complaints about her ability to compassionately, responsibly, and safely care for patients in accord with its policies and the rules and guideline of the Department ofAging and Disability Services. As part of her termination settlement, it acquiesced her demands for additional pay and paid her for the nonbillable twenty-six hours and for her last week of work. 6 She says that Little Things may have fired her because she knew that it and the client were defrauding medicaid. When asked to identify specific facts to support these claims, she had no answer. When asked when she reported the fraud, she said she had not. Jones should exercise more caution when accusing others of fraud. 7. She also says that Little Things may have fired her because she complained about not being paid for the non-billable hours. It did not retaliate against her; it fired her the day after she did not show up for work. It fired her not because it did not want to pay what she was owed, it fired her because she refused to conform to the billing scheme prescribed by Medicare, her inability to follow company procedure, and legitimate -2- concerns about the quality of care she provided. 7. Jones's claims will be dismissed with prejudice. Signed on January 5, 20I6, at Houston, Texas. ~ynn N'~gh4t'--------United States DistrictJudge -3-
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