California Court of Appeal

In this employment discrimination action, plaintiff alleges that he was racially discriminated against in violation of the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) when he was turned down for a union organizer position with defendant. Summary judgment in favor of defendant is reversed, where: 1) the trial court impermissibly relied on the after-acquired evidence of plaintiff's felony conviction to support its grant of summary judgment, as the court in Salas v. Sierra Chemical Co. held that after-acquired evidence cannot be used as an absolute bar to a worker's FEHA claims; 2) other than with respect to certain post-discovery period remedies, FEHA is not preempted by section 504(a) of the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act; and 3) given the outcome, plaintiff's appeal was clearly not frivolous and defendant’s request for sanctions must be denied.

Appellate Information

• Decided 02/19/2015
• Published 02/18/2015

Judges

• Reardon

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel