The Review · Case Index

California employment case index

Search every indexed California wrongful-termination and employment decision, or browse by subject area, statute, and decade — each summary source-verified against the published reporter.

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3 cases

Brown v. City of Inglewood: Elected Officials Are Not “Employees” Under Labor Code § 1102.5

July 7, 2025
Inglewood’s elected city treasurer accused the mayor of misappropriating public funds, then saw her monthly salary cut from $8,000 to $1,404 and her duties stripped away. Her whistleblower retaliation suit under Labor Code section 1102.5 failed at the threshold: a unanimous Supreme Court held that elected officials are not “employees” within section 1106’s definition. Finding the statutory text inconclusive, the court rested on legislative history and context — section 1106 protects rank-and-file public workers, not officials who answer to the electorate — while noting that other remedies, including the First Amendment, may remain available.

Scheer v. Regents of the University of California — which framework governs which whistleblower statute after Lawson

March 28, 2022
Reversing summary judgment for the UC Regents, the Second District mapped the post-Lawson landscape — Labor Code § 1102.6 governs § 1102.5 claims, Government Code § 8547.10(e) supplies the same framework for University of California whistleblowers, and McDonnell Douglas still governs Health and Safety Code § 1278.5 claims, under which Scheer's clause-by-clause dismantling of his termination letter raised a triable issue of pretext.

Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis

May 21, 2018
Arbitration agreements providing for individualized proceedings — including class- and collective-action waivers in the employment context — are enforceable under the FAA, and the NLRA does not override the FAA or render such agreements unlawful; courts must enforce the agreements according to their terms.