California employment case index

Cambodian villagers forced to work at Thai seafood factories sued a U.S. marketer under the trafficking civil-remedy statute; their case was dismissed because the statute then reached only those who succeeded in benefiting, not those who attempted to. After Congress amended the law, the en banc Ninth Circuit holds the clarifying amendment retroactive — and that Landgraf governs all such amendments, overruling the “clarifying amendment” exception — reviving the claims.

A divided First District panel threw out a $2.16 million defamation verdict, holding that a fired PG&E lineman's defamation claim was wrongful termination by another name: the statements came from the same conduct that caused the discharge, and the damages flowed from the job loss alone. Presiding Justice Tucher dissented in part, arguing the majority had invented an employer immunity the Supreme Court has already disclaimed. The California Supreme Court granted review, limited to whether a terminated employee may bring a defamation claim when the defamation contributed to the reasons for the termination, or must instead plead wrongful discharge. The opinion remains published and citable for persuasive value with the required review-granted notation; part II is unpublished. Analysis of a pending matter — confirm the status of S289581 before relying on anything here.

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.