A state appeals court ruled Thursday that factual issues still exist, and a lawsuit must move forward, in a racial discrimination case in which a former Bronx hospital staff member claims that a medical doctor both gave white employees better assignments than black employees and made disparaging racial remarks, like saying “you people” and “those people,” when referring to black people generally.

An Appellate Division, First Department panel reversed a lower court dismissal of plaintiff Marsha Bateman’s employment discrimination, hostile work environment and retaliation-focused lawsuit against Montefiore Medical Center. The panel wrote in part that the “dispute turns on whether defendants terminated plaintiff [Bateman] for discriminatory reasons” and that “issues of fact exist as to whether the proffered reason” for firing Bateman—that Bateman failed in many or most of her job requirements—“was pretextual.”