Howell v. State Dep’t of State Hosps., 107 Cal. App. 5th 143 (2024)

After three years of litigation and a two-week trial, a Napa County jury found Ashley Howell’s former employer (the Department of State Hospitals) liable for disability discrimination and awarded her $36,751 in lost earnings and health insurance benefits but nothing for her alleged emotional distress/pain and suffering. In addition, the trial court awarded Howell $135,102 in fees and costs. The trial court denied Howell’s motion for a new trial on her claim for noneconomic (emotional distress) damages. The Court of Appeal held that the trial court had not abused its discretion by failing to grant a new trial based in part on the fact that Howell had previously been diagnosed with major depressive disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder following a sexual assault she suffered three years before she began employment with the Department. Some of the physicians who testified at trial attributed Howell’s mental distress largely to the pre-employment sexual assault and concluded that by February 2020 (less than a month after the termination) Howell “presented essentially the best [her qualified medical evaluator] had ever seen her” notwithstanding her “continued… mild to moderate PTSD.” The appellate court also held that the trial court properly struck the jury’s award for lost health insurance benefits because Howell failed to prove she suffered a loss (e.g., paid insurance premiums or out-of-pocket costs related to the loss of insurance). Finally, the appellate court affirmed the trial court’s award of $135,102 in fees and costs despite Howell’s request for $1.8 million on the ground (according to the trial court) that the fee request was “striking” and “unsupportable” and the time spent on various matters was “shocking” and “beyond all reason.” The Court of Appeal did, however, remand the case to the trial court to consider Howell’s unopposed request for prejudgment interest. Cf. Pollock v. Kelso, 2025 WL 47533 (Cal. Ct. App. 2025) (employee was properly awarded $493,577 in prevailing-party attorney’s fees after application of 1.8 multiplier).

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Photo of Tony Oncidi Tony Oncidi

Anthony J. Oncidi is the Co-Chair Emeritus of the Labor & Employment Law Department and heads the West Coast Labor & Employment group in the firm’s Los Angeles office.

Tony represents employers and management in all aspects of labor relations and employment law…

Anthony J. Oncidi is the Co-Chair Emeritus of the Labor & Employment Law Department and heads the West Coast Labor & Employment group in the firm’s Los Angeles office.

Tony represents employers and management in all aspects of labor relations and employment law, including litigation and preventive counseling, wage and hour matters, including class actions, wrongful termination, employee discipline, Title VII and the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, executive employment contract disputes, sexual harassment training and investigations, workplace violence, drug testing and privacy issues, Sarbanes-Oxley claims and employee raiding and trade secret protection. A substantial portion of Tony’s practice involves the defense of employers in large class actions, employment discrimination, harassment and wrongful termination litigation in state and federal court as well as arbitration proceedings, including FINRA matters.

Tony is recognized as a leading lawyer by such highly respected publications and organizations as the Los Angeles Daily JournalThe Hollywood Reporter, and Chambers USA, which gives him the highest possible rating (“Band 1”) for Labor & Employment.  According to Chambers USA, clients say Tony is “brilliant at what he does… He is even keeled, has a high emotional IQ, is a great legal writer and orator, and never gives up.” Other clients report:  “Tony has an outstanding reputation” and he is “smart, cost effective and appropriately aggressive.” Tony is hailed as “outstanding,” particularly for his “ability to merge top-shelf lawyerly advice with pragmatic business acumen.” He is highly respected in the industry, with other commentators lauding him as a “phenomenal strategist” and “one of the top employment litigators in the country.”

“Tony is the author of the treatise titled Employment Discrimination Depositions (Juris Pub’g 2020; www.jurispub.com), co-author of Proskauer on Privacy (PLI 2020), and, since 1990, has been a regular columnist for the official publication of the Labor and Employment Law Section of the State Bar of California and the Los Angeles Daily Journal.

Tony has been a featured guest on Fox 11 News and CBS News in Los Angeles. He has been interviewed and quoted by leading national media outlets such as The National Law JournalBloomberg News, The New York Times, and Newsweek and Time magazines. Tony is a frequent speaker on employment law topics for large and small groups of employers and their counsel, including the Society for Human Resource Management (“SHRM”), PIHRA, the National CLE Conference, National Business Institute, the Employment Round Table of Southern California (Board Member), the Council on Education in Management, the Institute for Corporate Counsel, the State Bar of California, the California Continuing Education of the Bar Program and the Los Angeles and Beverly Hills Bar Associations. He has testified as an expert witness regarding wage and hour issues as well as the California Fair Employment and Housing Act and has served as a faculty member of the National Employment Law Institute. He has served as an arbitrator in an employment discrimination matter.

Tony is an appointed Hearing Examiner for the Los Angeles Police Commission Board of Rights and has served as an Adjunct Professor of Law and a guest lecturer at USC Law School and a guest lecturer at UCLA Law School.