Stiefel v. Bechtel Corp., 624 F.3d 1240 (2010)

James Richard Stiefel worked for Bechtel as an ironworker at a power plant. Five weeks before he was laid off, Stiefel injured his left hand while on the job. In his lawsuit, Stiefel alleged Bechtel laid him off as part of a “medical reduction in force,” which would result in cost savings to Bechtel under its

Thompson v. City of Monrovia, 186 Cal. App. 4th 860 (2010)

Officer Matthew Donald Thompson sued the Monrovia Police Department for harassment and a hostile work environment arising from offensive remarks and behavior that were allegedly directed at an African-American colleague. Thompson also alleged he suffered retaliation for having reported the racism. The trial court granted summary judgment to the police department, and the

Chavez v. City of Los Angeles, 47 Cal. 4th 970 (2010)

Over the course of six years, Robert Chavez, a Los Angeles Police Department officer, and his wife filed multiple lawsuits against the LAPD and other members of the LAPD, alleging a variety of claims involving discrimination, harassment and retaliation. In this particular lawsuit, Chavez alleged the city and three of his supervisors had

Myers v. Trendwest Resorts, Inc., 56 Cal. Rptr. 3d 501 (Ct. App. 2007)

Alissa Myers, a salesperson, alleged that her supervisor, Ayman Damlahki, had sexually harassed her with numerous unwanted and unwelcome sexual advances, comments, innuendoes of a sexual nature, and numerous non-consensual physical contacts with her body, all of which created an intimidating, oppressive, hostile and offensive work environment. The trial court granted

Roby v. McKesson HBOC, 2006 WL 3775897 (Cal. Ct. App. Dec. 26, 2006)

After doing a “stellar” job for 25 years and working as a customer service support liaison for McKesson, Charlene Roby developed a panic disorder and began missing substantial amounts of time from work. McKesson fired Roby for abusing its attendance policy, though many of her absences were attributable to her mental

Singleton v. United States Gypsum Co., 140 Cal. App. 4th 1547 (2006)

John Singleton, a maintenance mechanic employed by USG, was, according to the employer, terminated for having said words to the effect of “if we [have to] work on Christmas, I am going to come in here with a gun and shoot everybody except Sandy.” Singleton denied making the statement though he admitted

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

Hardage v. CBS Broadcasting, Inc., 427 F.3d 1177 (9th Cir. 2005)

Hugh Hardage, a Local Sales Manager for KSTW-TV in Seattle, alleged that he was sexually harassed by Kathy Sparks, the station’s General Manager, who worked in Tacoma. Hardage claimed that he had been sexually harassed by Sparks on several occasions and subjected to retaliation after he rejected her advances, which occurred in the

Lyle v. Warner Bros. Television Prods., 38 Cal. App. 4th 264 (2004)

The producers of the television show "Friends" hired Amaani Lyle as a writers’ assistant in June of 1999 and terminated her employment four months later based, they said, on her poor job performance and deficient typing skills. Among other things, Lyle alleged that she was subjected to racial and sexual harassment through

Colores v. Bd. of Trustees of the Cal. State Univ., 105 Cal. App. 4th 1293 (2003)

Lillian Colores, a former director of procurement, contracts and support services for California State University, Los Angeles, alleged that she was constructively terminated in violation of public policy. Nine years after she began working at the university (and 12 years before she applied for and received disability retirement),