California Employment Law Notes

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McRae v. Dep’t of Corrections, 142 Cal. App. 4th 377 (2006)

Dr. Margie McRae filed a lawsuit against her employer, the California Department of Corrections, and four individual defendants, seeking damages for discrimination and retaliation in violation of the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA). The trial court granted summary judgment to the four individual defendants, and the case proceeded to trial against the…

Edwards v. Arthur Andersen LLP, 142 Cal. App. 4th 603 (2006)

Raymond Edwards II, the former tax manager for the Los Angeles office of the now defunct accounting firm Arthur Andersen LLP, had executed a non-competition agreement that prohibited him from performing professional services for 18 months post-employment for any client whose account he had handled during the final 18 months of his employment…

Dunbar v. Albertson’s, Inc., 141 Cal. App. 4th 1422 (2006)

Maurice Dunbar, a grocery manager for Albertson’s, filed this class action in which he asserted that he and other similarly situated Albertson’s employees were misclassified as executive employees exempt from overtime. The putative class consisted of approximately 900 individuals who had worked as grocery managers for Albertson’s since 2000. In support of his motion…

Koehl v. Verio, Inc., 2006 WL 2615515 (Cal. Ct. App. 2006)

Jeffrey Koehl, et al., worked as sales associates for Verio, an Internet service provider. Sales associates earned base salaries of between $40,000 and $75,000 plus commissions based on their sales volumes. If a customer cancelled an installation order before paying for the first three months of service, Verio would recover the commission payments…

Syverson v. IBM, 2006 WL 2506421 (9th Cir. 2006)

The former IBM employees in this class action challenged their purported waiver of claims arising under the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) on the ground that the waiver, which was part of a severance agreement, was not “knowing and voluntary” within the meaning of the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act (OWBPA). According to…

United States v. Ziegler, 456 F.3d 1138 (9th Cir. 2006)

After the owner of Frontline Processing contacted the FBI with a tip that an employee, Brian Ziegler, had accessed child pornography on the Internet from a workplace computer, Frontline entered Ziegler’s locked office and made a copy of the computer’s hard drive, which was provided to the FBI. Forensic examiners at the FBI discovered…

Deveraturda v. Globe Aviation Sec. Services, 454 F.3d 1043 (9th Cir. 2006)

Virgil Deveraturda and other similarly situated employees, who were employed by Globe Airport Security Services to provide screening services at San Jose International Airport, were laid off as a result of the Aviation and Transportation Security Act of 2001. The employees were not given the 60 days’ notice provided under the WARN…

Soukup v. Law Offices of Herbert Hafif, 39 Cal. 4th 260 (2006)

Peggy Soukup, a former employee of the Law Offices of Herbert Hafif, sued Ronald C. Stock for abuse of process and malicious prosecution based upon Stock’s prosecution of an earlier lawsuit against Soukup on behalf of the Hafifs and their law firm. The underlying lawsuit, which involved Soukup’s alleged disclosure to a…

Butler v. The Vons Companies, Inc., 140 Cal. App. 4th 943 (2006)

While working as a stock clerk for Vons, Sheldon Butler signed a “Compromise and Release Settlement Agreement” arising from an altercation that Butler had with a co-employee. Approximately two years later, Butler filed unrelated claims alleging employment discrimination and violation of Business & Professions Code § 17200, and Vons sought to rely…

Kearney v. Salomon Smith Barney, Inc., 39 Cal. 4th 95 (2006)

In this proceeding, several California clients of SSB filed a putative class action seeking damages and injunctive relief against SSB’s Atlanta-based branch’s practice of recording telephone conversations with California residents without their knowledge or consent. The lower court affirmed dismissal of the lawsuit after applying the law of the State of Georgia. The…