Legal Pad

Lucasfilm Pregnancy Case Heading Back to Trial Court

[Scott Graham]

The California Supreme Court may be feeling some pregancy discrimination fatigue.

Six weeks after handing down its blockbuster decision in Harris v. City of Santa Monica, the high court on Wednesday said no thanks to a bitterly fought contest between Angela Alioto and Altshuler Berzon on one side and Lucasfilm Ltd. on the other.

Instead, the court left intact an appellate decision that wiped out Julie Gilman Veronese's $113,830 jury award and a $1.1 million attorney fee, sending it back to Marin County Superior Court. Veronese, Alioto's daughter-in-law, alleges that Lucasfilm withdrew a job offer after learning she was expecting twins and that one had miscarried.

Plaintiffs counsel had warned that Justice James Richman's opinion in Veronese v. Lucasfilm Ltd. carved a dangerous exception into discrimination law by excusing employers who had well-meaning concerns about the health of a fetus. It will make it "far more difficult for victims of discrimination to prove their claims," they argued — not only pregant women, but older and disabled workers as well.

Lucasfilm's attorneys, Steven Drapkin at the Law Offices of Steven Drapkin and Paul Cane of Paul Hastings, had called the argument exaggerated, and countered that Harris compelled a new trial anyway on Lucasfilm's motives.

None of the justices voted to grant review the case.

'Harris' Already Being Invoked by Employment Counsel

[Scott Graham]

It didn't take long for the California Supreme Court's big employment discrimination decision, Harris v. City of Santa Monica, to prompt a request for a new trial.

Thursday afternoon -- less than seven hours after the high court issued Harris -- attorneys for Lucasfilm Ltd. incorporated the decision into a brief seeking relief from a $1.27 million pregnancy discrimination judgment.

In Veronese v. Lucasfilm, the First District Court of Appeal has already reversed the judgment obtained by Julie Gilman Veronese, ruling that the trial judge failed to instruct the jury on the business judgment rule, among other things. Veronese, represented by Altshuler Berzon and the Law Offices of Mayor Joseph L. Alioto and Angela Alioto, petitioned for review to the Supreme Court last month.

Lucasfilm filed its answer on Thursday. Among several reasons for denying review, it noted the jury was instructed with CACI 2500, which let it rule for Veronese if discrimination was a motivating factor in the employment action. "On Feb. 7, 2013, in Harris v. City of Santa Monica, No. S1081004, this court held that CACI 2500 is wrong," wrote attorneys Steven Drapkin of the Law Offices of Steven Drapkin and Paul Cane of Paul Hastings in their answer filed Feb. 7.

Because Harris requires that discrimination be a substantial motivating factor, Lucasfilm is entitled to a new trial, even if the Supreme Court were to agree with Veronese about the business judgment instruction, they contend. 

It's not clear how much relief Harris might ultimately convey to Lucasfilm, if a new trial were ordered on that ground. Of the $1.27 million awarded to Veronese, $1.15 million was for attorneys fees. And even post-Harris, Veronese could make a claim for fees.

Supreme Court Depublishes Recalcitrant Wage Ruling

[Scott Graham]

Management-side employment lawyers were not happy when the Second District Court of Appeal, under orders from the California Supreme Court to reconsider an important wage-and-hour issue, issued a new opinion last July with practically the identical holding.

The California Employment Law Council was so unhappy, it not only asked the Supreme Court to depublish the ruling, it even suggested the Supreme Court send the case back to a different appellate division for another round of reconsideration.

Well, the Supreme Court didn't take that unprecedented step, but last month it did depublish Harris v. Superior Court. That probably won't make real party Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. happy, but it was welcomed by CELC, a group of in-house counsel and HR officials around the state represented by Paul Hastings.

"We felt that the decision of the court of appeal in Harris III was inconsistent in many respects with the analysis of the Supreme Court in Harris II, and that conflict would have led to confusion in the lower courts," said Paul Hastings partner Paul Grossman, general counsel to the CELC. "And therefore we are delighted at the depublication order which leaves the law clear now in California on the basis of the Supreme Court's decision."

Paralegal Seeks New Trial on Defamation Verdict

[Kate Moser]

The paralegal walloped with a $1.25 million defamation verdict last month by an Alameda County jury is asking the judge for a new trial.

Judge Jo-Lynne Lee entered judgment on Aug. 31 after a lengthy trial at the end of which the mostly female jury sided with Allison Moreno’s former boss, Oakland attorney Thomas Ostly. The award included $100,000 in punitive damages.

In the contentious case, Moreno claimed Ostly pressured her into a sexual relationship and then fired her without reason. Ostly counter-sued her for defamation, claiming that they had been dating and that he never fired her.

In court documents filed this week, Moreno’s attorneys at Oakland’s Siegel & Yee made attorney-client privilege a central issue in their arguments for vacating the judgment or ordering a new trial.

Moreno had a lot of lawyer friends in the East Bay tenant law community in which Ostly practiced, and they argued she can’t be held liable for talking to them or to other friends and family about Ostly.

They also argue that Ostly suffered the emotional distress he blames on Moreno long before their paths crossed.

They’re set to be back in court Oct. 6 for a hearing on Moreno’s post-trial motions in Moreno v. Ostly, RG07339821.

Governor Endorses Lawsuit, Legislation In Face of Teachers Unions' Outcries

[Cynthia Foster]

Gov. Schwarzenegger has thrown his support behind a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union against Los Angeles Unified School District, in addition to endorsing Republican-authored legislation aimed at giving school districts more authority to fire teachers. 

According to The LA Independent, Schwarzenegger both announced his condemnation of LAUSD's recent firings, which the ACLU says targeted teachers at schools that serve lower income communities, and introduced legislation that would give more control back to the districts because "it is unacceptable that school districts cannot determine their staffing based on the needs of students."

The legislation has been criticized by the California Teachers Association and other teachers unions. They say it is just a method for removing teachers' rights to a hearing in the event they are fired.

The lawsuit, filed back in February, says that districts like LAUSD need more authority to circumvent procedures like that of seniority-based firing in order to ensure that layoffs aren't adversely affecting certain schools over others. To read more about the lawsuit, check out LA Legal Pad.

Haynes and Boone Makes Move Into California Corporate Market

[Petra Pasternak]

Haynes and Boone added its first corporate lawyer in California this week, and he’s got his work cut out for him.

Bart Greenberg, former co-chair of Manatt’s venture capital and tech group, joined the Dallas-based Haynes and Boone as an equity partner yesterday, and he’s tasked with recruiting corporate, labor and employment, and commercial litigation lawyers into the firm’s Orange County office, he said.

It’s no cakewalk to start a corporate practice from scratch at a new branch office, especially when the firm’s not well known in the region. Greenberg concedes the lack of Haynes and Boone’s name recognition was a little bit of a concern at first. 

Hooters Hot Pants: Serious Business

[Kate Moser]

A wage-and-hour lawsuit filed in Sacramento County Superior Court this week offers insight into the world of a Hooters Girl – specifically, their uniforms, which the plaintiffs say (free reg. req.) the company makes them pay to replace.

The complaint, filed by five current and former Hooters Girls, draws from the company website to describe the uniform as “white Hooters tank top, orange shorts, suntan hose, white socks, solid white shoes, brown Hooters pouch, name-tag and of course…a smile! The uniform cannot be sold to the public for any reason.”

The uniform requirements are so particular, the complaint says, that they specify the approved type of socks (“all white, thick athletic ‘slouch’ socks”) and color of pantyhose (Suntan, but “you may go a shade darker if your skin color is darker than the Suntan pantyhose color.”).

Governor Wants Cal Supremes to Draw Line in the Furlough Sand

[Cheryl Miller]

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today asked (.pdf) the Supreme Court to take up seven furlough lawsuit appeals before the appellate courts can rule on them.

The move makes sense economically. The state has already spent $589,000 on litigation costs “with tens of thousands remaining to be billed,” Schwarzenegger spokeswoman Rachel Arrezola said.

And it’s not like the trial courts have been issuing consistent rulings.

Laid Off MoFo Staffer Levels Charge At Associate

[Amanda Royal]

A former Morrison & Foerster secretary claims in a wrongful termination suit filed last month that an associate at the firm had once threatened to bring an Uzi to work and kill people if an important fax wasn't located.

Aileen Martinez, the former secretary, leveled the accusation against associate Mimi Yang in a suit filed in San Francisco Superior Court.

Yang, who is still at MoFo, declined to comment and referred inquiries to her legal counsel, Michael Hallerud at Nixon Peabody. Hallerud declined to comment.

Martinez, who'd been at MoFo 28 years, lost her job in the firm's January 2009 layoffs. The suit says that when the Uzi comment was made, in 2008, she complained to superiors, filed a police report, and took a three-month disability leave.

Her complaint says she was at One Market Plaza in 1982 when Ricardo Contawe shot 11 people at an insurance office on another floor. Martinez alleges she suffered post-traumatic stress disorder from the incident that remained latent until Yang’s Uzi comment. She was afraid to go to work for several months, and afraid of Yang from then on, the complaint says.

Mary Shea Hagebol at Shea Law Offices in Oakland is representing Martinez. She did not respond to requests for comment.

Republicans Draft Legislation with Focus on Biz-friendly Deregulation

State Republican lawmakers on Wednesday are expected to unveil a “jobs package” of legislation that includes a familiar target: employment litigation.

Sen. Minority Leader Dennis Hollingsworth has already introduced early drafts of two bills. Although the bills’ specifics are still being worked out, SB 990 would amend laws guaranteeing meal breaks to workers while SB 988 would change alternative work week rules.

“The main purpose is to spur job creation and to help businesses with less regulation,” said Hollingsworth spokesman Hector Barajas. Republicans will pursue their package of 15-20 bills separately from budget negotiations, Barajas said.