Supreme Court of California

In plaintiff's wrongful discharge, harassment and discrimination suit against her former employer and supervisor, court of appeal's judgment is reversed where: 1) the Court of Appeal erred in allocating the evidence between the harassment claim and the discrimination claim, and as such, basing on that allocation, it erred in finding insufficient evidence to support the harassment verdict; and 2) although the court of appeal was correct in holding that the $15 million punitive damages award exceeds the federal constitutional limit, it erred in concluding that in this case the appropriate limit is $2 million as, under the test set forth in State Farm, a one-to-one ratio between compensatory and punitive damages is the federal constitutional limit in this case.

Appellate Information

• Decided 11/30/2009
• Published 11/30/2009

Judges

• KENNARD, J.

Court

• Supreme Court of California

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Howard Rice Nemerovski Canady Falk & Rabkin, Jerome B. Falk, Jr., Linda Q. Foy, Dipanwita Deb Amar, San Francisco, Jason M. Habermeyer;  Fitzgerald, Abbott & Beardsley and Sara E. Robertson, Oakland, for Defendants and Appellants., Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker, Paul W. Cane, Jr., Katherine C. Huibonhoa, Laura Scher and Heather N. Mitchell, San Francisco, for California Employment Law Council as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Defendants and Appellants., Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosato, Fred W. Alvarez and Michael J. Nader, Palo Alto, for Employers Group as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Defendants and Appellants., Christopher H. Whelan, Gold River;  The deRubertis Law Firm, David M. deRubertis, David A. Lesser, Woodland Hills;  Pine & Pine, Norman Pine, Los Angeles;  Riegels Campos & Kenyon and Charity Kenyon, Sacramento, for Plaintiff and Respondent., Law Offices of Jeffery K. Winikow and Jeffrey K. Winikow, Los Angeles, for California Employment Lawyers Association as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Plaintiff and Respondent., Claudia Center, San Francisco, for Legal Aid SocietyEmployment Law Center, Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, the Impact Fund, the Disability Rights Legal Center, Equal Rights Advocates, California Women's Law Center, Protection and Advocacy, Inc., and Disability Rights Advocates as Amici Curiae on behalf of Plaintiff and Respondent., Sharon J. Arkin for Consumer Attorneys of California as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Plaintiff and Respondent.