Campbell v. State of Hawaii Dep’t of Educ., 892 F.3d 1005 (9th Cir. 2018)

Patricia Campbell was employed by the Hawaii Department of Education (“DOE”) for nine years until she resigned because she was allegedly harassed and degraded by students on the basis of her race (white) and her sex. She alleges that students called her offensive names (including “f*cking haole”) and that

Ambat v. City & County of San Francisco, 2014 WL 2959634 (9th Cir. 2014)

The plaintiffs in this case are current and former deputies of the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department (“SFSD”) who challenged the SFSD’s policy prohibiting male deputies from supervising female inmates. The deputies contend that the policy violates Title VII’s prohibition against sex discrimination. The district court granted summary judgment to the

Harris v. City of Santa Monica, No. S181004, 2013 Cal. LEXIS 941 (Feb. 7, 2013)

Wynona Harris, a bus driver for the City of Santa Monica (the City), alleged that she was fired because of her pregnancy in violation of the prohibition against sex discrimination under the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA).  The City denied Harris’s allegations and asserted as an affirmative defense that the City had legitimate, nondiscriminatory reasons to fire Harris.  At trial, the City asked the court to instruct the jury that if it found a mix of discriminatory and legitimate motives, the City could escape liability by proving that a legitimate motive alone would have led to the same decision.  The trial court refused the instruction and instead told the jury that Harris had to prove that her pregnancy was a “motivating factor/reason for the discharge.”  The jury found in favor of Harris and awarded her $177,905 in damages.  The Court of Appeal reversed, holding that the requested instruction was legally correct and that refusal to give the instruction was prejudicial error.

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

Gober v. Ralphs Grocery Co., 137 Cal. App. 4th 204 (2006)

Six Ralphs employees sued for sexual harassment after the store director allegedly engaged in inappropriate touching, used profanity, made inappropriate comments about some of the employees’ sex lives and threw various objects at some of them. The jury awarded each of the employees between $50,000 and $200,000 in compensatory damages and between $150,000

Phillips v. St. Mary Regional Med. Ctr., 96 Cal. App. 4th 218 (2002)

Plaintiff, a former social worker for St. Mary, a nonprofit, religiously-affiliated hospital, alleged wrongful termination in violation of the public policy against race and sex discrimination as embodied in the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), the California Constitution and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The