California Employment Law Notes

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Tien v. Superior Court, 139 Cal. App. 4th 528 (2006)

In this wage and hour class action litigation against Tenet Healthcare Corporation, plaintiffs sought from Tenet the names, addresses and telephone numbers of all of the putative members of the class, which Tenet estimated to be approximately 50,000 people. The parties subsequently agreed that a neutral letter would be sent to a random sample…

The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. v. Batra, 430 F. Supp. 2d 158 (S.D.N.Y. 2006)

While working as Global General Brand Manager for Estée Lauder, Shashi Batra (a resident of San Francisco) signed a non-compete agreement that prohibited him from competing with the company anywhere in the world for a period of 12 months after his employment ended. Batra had worldwide responsibilities for two of…

Lyle v. Warner Bros. Television Productions, 38 Cal. 4th 264 (2006)

Amaani Lyle was terminated after four months of working as a typist in the writers’ room of the producers of the television show “Friends.” Following her termination because she could not type (contended the producers), Lyle asserted, among other things, that she had been subjected to a hostile environment in the form of…

Williams v. Genentech, 139 Cal. App. 4th 357 (2006)

Rochelle Williams, a receptionist at Genentech, was criticized by her supervisors for mishandling an incident involving company security. (Instead of following the company’s established procedure for dealing with a security alert, Williams spoke to a security officer in a “code of her own devise” – “Hurry and bring the pizzas” and “It was a sad…

Progressive Concrete, Inc. v. Parker, 136 Cal. App. 4th 540 (2006)

Ron Parker was employed as a sales coordinator by both Progressive and another company. The Labor Commissioner awarded Parker $133,339.38 in unpaid wages, interest and penalties. Progressive filed a notice of appeal with the San Diego County Superior Court, requesting a de novo hearing of Parker’s claims. The trial court stayed execution of…

Kelly v. Stamps.com Inc., 135 Cal. App. 4th 1088 (2006)

Megan Kelly was discharged as the vice president of marketing of Stamps.com when she was seven months’ pregnant as part of a company-wide reorganization and reduction in force. Within a year of Kelly’s hire in October of 1999, the company suffered a precipitous 93 percent reduction in its stock value and, in order to…

Biosense Webster, Inc. v. Superior Court, 135 Cal. App. 4th 827 (2006)

Biosense, a manufacturer and seller of electrophysiology catheters and anatomical mapping devices, had its employees sign non-competition agreements prohibiting them from providing services to “conflicting organizations” for 18 months after leaving Biosense. After three of its former employees went to work for St. Jude Medical, one of its competitors, Biosense threatened St.…

StaffPro, Inc. v. Elite Show Services, Inc., 136 Cal. App. 4th 1392 (2006)

StaffPro initiated this malicious prosecution action against Elite Show Services, one of its competitors in the eventstaffing industry. Previously, Elite had sued StaffPro for unfair business practices that were allegedly designed to “artificially lower [StaffPro’s] cost of labor and to diminish or destroy competition for security guard and traffic control services…

Readylink Healthcare v. Lynch, 440 F.3d 1118 (9th Cir. 2006)

Readylink Healthcare and its founder, sole shareholder and officer, Barry Treash, sued David Lynch and his law firm for invasion of privacy (public disclosure of private facts) based upon, among other things, Lynch’s posting on his website that Treash was a “convicted felon.” (Lynch had defended a former Readylink employee in trade secret litigation…

Stamps v. Superior Court, 136 Cal. App. 4th 1441 (2006)

Robert Stamps sued his former employer, Traylor Brothers, Inc., for, among other things, violation of California Civil Code §§ 51.7 and 52.1 (granting all persons the right to be free from violence and intimidation by threat of violence based on race, religion, ancestry, national origin, etc.). The employer filed a demurrer in response to…