California Appellate Tracker

Levi v. Regents of University of California

October 7, 2017

Plaintiff could not state a viable employment discrimination claim based on her supervisor’s actions favoring his co-employee wife, but plaintiff could state a viable whistleblower claim based on the supervisor’s retaliation for her complaining about his favoritism.

A doctor in the UC San Diego school of ophthalmology sued the Regents for sex discrimination, violation of the California Whistleblower Protection Act (Gov. Code 8547) and various other wrongs, claiming that she had been demoted and otherwise subjected to adverse employment actions after she complained that the head of the school was favoring his wife, who was first a resident and later a professor in the school. Discrimination in favor of a paramour or wife doesn’t violate the FEHA, so plaintiff’s complaints about favoritism were not protected by the FEHA’s anti-retaliation provisions. However, plaintiff did state a viable claim under the Whistleblower Protection Act since favoritism for a close relative violated the University’s personnel policies which had the force of law and were designed, in this respect, to protect the public interest.

California Court of Appeal, Fourth District, Division 1 (Dato, J.); September 26, 2017 (partial publication); 2017 WL 4250143

Subscribe to California Appellate Tracker

Thank you for your desire to subscribe to Severson & Werson’s Appellate Tracker Weblog. In order to subscribe, you must provide a valid name and e-mail address. This too will be retained on our server. When you push the “subscribe button”, we will send an electronic mail to the address that you provided asking you to confirm your subscription to our Weblog. By pushing the “subscribe button”, you represent and warrant that you are over the age of 18 years old, are the owner/authorized user of that e-mail address, and are entitled to receive e-mails at that address. Our weblog will retain your name and e-mail address on its server, or the server of its web host. However, we won’t share any of this information with anyone except the Firm’s employees and contractors, except under certain extraordinary circumstances described on our Privacy Policy and (About The Consumer Finance Blog/About the Appellate Tracker Weblog) Page. NOTICE AND AGREEMENT REGARDING E-MAILS AND CALLS/TEXT MESSAGES TO LAND-LINE AND WIRELESS TELEPHONES: By providing your contact information and confirming your subscription in response to the initial e-mail that we send you, you agree to receive e-mail messages from Severson & Werson from time-to-time and understand and agree that such messages are or may be sent by means of automated dialing technology. If you have your email forwarded to other electronic media, including text messages and cellular telephone by way of VoIP, internet, social media, or otherwise, you agree to receive my messages in that way. This may result in charges to you. Your agreement and consent also extend to any other agents, affiliates, or entities to whom our communications are forwarded. You agree that you will notify Severson & Werson in writing if you revoke this agreement and that your revocation will not be effective until you notify Severson & Werson in writing. You understand and agree that you will afford Severson & Werson a reasonable time to unsubscribe you from the website, that the ability to do so depends on Severson & Werson’s press of business and access to the weblog, and that you may still receive one or more emails or communications from weblog until we are able to unsubscribe you.

I Agree

Effective, Experienced, Exceptional.

California Appellate Tracker

Levi v. Regents of University of California

Categories

San Francisco

Severson & Werson

Orange County

Severson & Werson