The Superior Court of Pennsylvania has upheld a 2007 decision by a Philadelphia trial court that awarded Mark Helpin, D.M.D. -- former chair of the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine Department of Pediatric Dentistry and now chairman of the department of pediatric dentistry at Temple University's Maurice H. Kornberg School of Dentistry -- $4 million for breach of contract, according to news reports.
In an opinion delivered by the Superior Court April 1, the court found that the University of Pennsylvania effectively fired Dr. Helpin and breached its employment contract with him by "radically altering his working arrangements."
According to court records, Dr. Helpin was hired in September 1989 by the Penn School of Dental Medicine, where he became an assistant professor of pediatric dentistry and director of the division of pediatric dentistry in the departmental dental care systems. Over the next decade, he was instrumental in helping to expand a dental clinic at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia that served special needs children, and a good portion of his compensation was tied to the success of that clinic.
But when Marjorie Jeffcoat was hired as the dean of the dental school in 2003, she removed Dr. Helpin as chairman and reassigned him to the University of Pennsylvania dental clinic in the Philadelphia suburb of Bryn Mawr. After his compensation "fell sharply," the court noted, Dr. Helpin resigned in September 2004 and subsequently sued the university. A jury ruled in his favor after a three-week trial in June 2007.
The university is now considering its "appellate options," according to a story in the Daily Pennsylvanian.
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