McDoniel v. Kavry Mgmt., LLC, 114 Cal. App. 5^th 949 (2025)

Steven McDoniel was employed by Kavry Management as an “assistant grower” at its licensed marijuana growing facility in Adelanto, California. After $70,000 in cash and marijuana were stolen from the storage room, employees were told, “Y’all need to go take a polygraph test.” The polygrapher, Rachel Levy, claimed she would not have conducted the polygraph exams unless each employee had signed a preprinted consent form that she had previously provided to Kavry. (Kavry was unable to produce at trial any of the consent forms purportedly signed by its employees, including McDoniel.) McDoniel failed the polygraph exam twice, which caused him to be “shocked beyond belief,” “scared” and “worried that the career he had planned in the marijuana-cultivation industry would be over.” After McDoniel was terminated, he did some research and concluded he should have been advised of his right to refuse to take the polygraph exam. McDoniel sued Kavry for wrongful termination based on a violation of Cal. Lab. Code § 432.2 (regulating an employer’s use of polygraph examinations). At trial, the jury awarded McDoniel $100,000 in emotional distress damages, and the court awarded him $228,000 in attorney’s fees and costs. The Court of Appeal affirmed the $100,000 verdict, but reversed the award of attorney’s fees and costs, holding that McDoniel was not entitled to recover fees or costs under Cal. Lab. Code § 432.6 (statute is inapplicable and did not become effective until after McDoniel’s employment had ended) or PAGA (argument forfeited on appeal).