Yates v. Cal. State University of the East Bay CA1/3 ( 2022 )


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  • Filed 4/29/22 Yates v. Cal. State University of the East Bay CA1/3
    NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS
    California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for
    publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or
    ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.
    IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
    FIRST APPELLATE DISTRICT
    DIVISION THREE
    DORIS YATES,
    Plaintiff and Appellant,
    A162131
    v.
    CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY                                          (Alameda County
    OF THE EAST BAY,                                                     Super. Ct. No. HG19029448)
    Defendant and Respondent.
    Plaintiff Doris Yates brought this action against her employer,
    defendant California State University of the East Bay, for alleged violations
    of the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) (Gov. Code,
    § 12900 et seq.1) related to third party harassment by a student. The
    operative complaint alleges that defendant failed to take all reasonably
    necessary steps to prevent and address the student’s harassment and that
    defendant unlawfully retaliated against plaintiff for asserting her rights
    under FEHA. We conclude the trial court properly sustained defendant’s
    demurrer without leave to amend, and we affirm the judgment of dismissal.
    1        All further unlabeled statutory references are to this code.
    1
    FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
    The following facts, which we assume are true for purposes of
    demurrer, are taken from the allegations of the third amended complaint and
    from materials that were judicially noticed by the trial court.
    At all relevant times, plaintiff was a tenured professor employed by
    defendant. P.W. was a student enrolled in a class taught by plaintiff from
    September to December of 2014 and at that time began to stalk her. The
    harassment continued through 2019, though P.W. “is no longer a student” at
    defendant’s campus.2 After plaintiff complained to defendant about P.W.’s
    “unwelcome sexual behavior and hostile stalking behavior”, defendant
    conducted an investigation.
    Defendant’s investigation culminated in a written report dated April
    14, 2015. The report found that: (1) P.W. admitted she sent plaintiff an
    email on December 3, 2014 and acknowledged having personal feelings for
    plaintiff; (2) P.W. admitted she brought a card to plaintiff’s office; (3) it is
    probable that P.W. called plaintiff on two occasions and also sent plaintiff a
    Facebook friend request on December 12, 2014; (4) P.W. sent plaintiff a
    LinkedIn network request on December 8, 2014; (5) P.W. likely made random
    calls and left voice messages for plaintiff at the beginning of the quarter;
    (6) P.W. admitted she came to plaintiff’s office on February 5, 2015 to
    apologize; and (7) P.W. attempted to contact plaintiff by email on February
    28, 2015.
    Based on these findings, the April 14, 2015 report determined that
    plaintiff’s claims of sexual harassment were substantiated and that P.W.’s
    conduct was “ ‘sufficiently severe or pervasive’ ” and “ ‘intimidating, hostile
    and offensive’ ” that it violated defendant’s policy against sexual harassment
    2     The complaint alleges P.W. continued as a student until 2019.
    2
    (Executive Order 1096). Despite its report findings, defendant allowed P.W.
    to remain enrolled as a student, though it sanctioned P.W. “not to have any
    contact with [plaintiff] whatsoever.” Thereafter P.W. continued her
    harassing conduct, and defendant knew of this but allegedly failed to take all
    reasonable steps necessary to prevent it and protect plaintiff from it.
    In November 2015, plaintiff sought a civil harassment restraining order
    against P.W. from the Alameda County Superior Court. In requesting the
    restraining order, plaintiff submitted a declaration attesting that P.W.
    harassed her by: sending her inappropriate e-mails though defendant’s e-
    mail system on December 3 and 11, 2014; attempting to contact her via social
    media and stopping by plaintiff’s work office; and sending a certified
    document to plaintiff’s home on October 17, 2015. Plaintiff also referred to
    defendant’s finding that P.W. had violated Executive Order 1096; defendant’s
    sanction of P.W.; and P.W.’s violation of the sanction on “February 5 and 28,
    April 28, October 17, 2015.” On December 17, 2015, the trial court issued a
    restraining order, directing P.W. to stay at least 100 yards away from
    plaintiff, her home, and her vehicle. The restraining order was set to expire
    on December 17, 2018.
    In December 2018, plaintiff filed a request to renew the restraining
    order on the basis that P.W.’s behavior “was continuing and ongoing.” In
    support of her request, plaintiff submitted a declaration stating that “[s]ince
    the issuance of the original Restraining Order, [plaintiff has] been forced to
    have continued contacts with [P.W.], through [plaintiff’s] Lawyer, as [P.W.]
    exhausted, unsuccessfully, all appeals.” Plaintiff referenced two additional
    incidents in 2018—one in March and one in November—in which P.W.
    attempted contact with plaintiff through plaintiff’s attorney.
    3
    Meanwhile, on August 21, 2018, plaintiff filed a charge of
    discrimination with the California Department of Fair Employment and
    Housing (DFEH) alleging defendant’s violation of FEHA. After receiving a
    right to sue letter from DFEH, plaintiff filed the underlying action for
    violation of FEHA. This initial complaint alleged that a former student of
    plaintiff’s at CSU East Bay stalked plaintiff from December 2014 through
    November 2018; that plaintiff reported the problem to defendant; that
    defendant failed to take all reasonable steps to ensure a safe workplace free
    from sexual harassment; and that defendant’s inaction forced plaintiff to seek
    a civil anti-harassment restraining order against the student. When
    defendant objected to the initial complaint as vague and uncertain, plaintiff
    voluntarily agreed to amend. Thereafter defendant objected to the sufficiency
    of the first amended complaint to state a cause of action, and plaintiff
    obtained leave of court to file a second amended complaint that included a
    second cause of action for retaliation in violation of FEHA.
    Defendant then demurred to the second amended complaint.
    Defendant also filed a request for judicial notice of plaintiff’s filings in
    support of the restraining orders she obtained against P.W. The judicial
    notice request was granted without opposition.
    The trial court found the second amended complaint deficient and
    sustained the demurrer with leave to amend. It determined the first cause of
    action was inadequately pleaded because it alleged only “that the stalking
    began ‘in December 2014’ and ‘continued into November of 2018,’ ” without
    “adequately alleg[ing] the specific nature of the conduct that plaintiff
    contends amounts to ‘severe and pervasive’ harassment.” In granting leave
    to amend, the court ordered plaintiff to amend this claim “with specificity by
    stating the specific conduct that supports her claim of severe and pervasive
    4
    ‘stalking,’ including precisely when it occurred, how often it occurred, and
    where each such act occurred.”
    The trial court then found the second cause of action for retaliation in
    violation of FEHA deficient because it failed to identify and allege a material
    adverse employment action. Although plaintiff had alleged a senior employee
    of defendant directed her to resign or step down from an administrative
    committee, the court found no allegation that plaintiff actually resigned or
    was otherwise removed from the committee.
    Thereafter plaintiff filed a third amended complaint (hereafter, the
    complaint), which is the operative pleading at issue. The complaint alleges
    that for several years, both before and after the restraining order was issued,
    P.W. engaged in sexual harassment and stalking behavior by making
    unwelcome sexual statements about plaintiff; sending unwanted
    communications referencing plaintiff; and attempting to contact plaintiff
    through social media.
    After unsuccessful meet and confer efforts, defendant demurred to the
    complaint on the grounds that it failed to allege sufficient facts to constitute a
    cause of action against defendant and that plaintiff failed to cure the
    pleading deficiencies previously identified by the trial court. The trial court
    ultimately sustained the demurrer without leave to amend, finding the
    complaint failed to comply with its previous ruling “requiring that plaintiff
    plead with particularity the facts supporting her claims sufficient to
    overcome the deficiencies of the Second Amended Complaint identified in the
    06/28/2020 ruling.” The court ordered dismissal of the entire complaint and
    entered a judgment accordingly.
    5
    DISCUSSION
    The standard for reviewing an order sustaining a demurrer is settled.
    “ ‘[W]e examine the operative complaint de novo to determine whether it
    alleges facts sufficient to state a cause of action under any legal theory.’ ”
    (King v. CompPartners, Inc. (2018) 
    5 Cal.5th 1039
    , 1050.) We assume the
    truth of all properly pleaded material facts, but not contentions or
    conclusions of law. (Mathews v. Becerra (2019) 
    8 Cal.5th 756
    , 768.) We also
    consider matters that have been judicially noticed. (Ibid.) The complaint
    must be read as a whole and given a reasonable interpretation. (Ibid.) When
    a demurrer is sustained without leave to amend, “we consider whether there
    is a ‘reasonable possibility’ that the defect in the complaint could be cured by
    amendment.” (King, at p. 1050.) It is the plaintiff’s burden to prove that
    amendment could cure the defect. (Ibid.)
    A. First Cause of Action: Violation of FEHA (Hostile Work
    Environment)
    FEHA prohibits workplace harassment based on sex. (§ 12940,
    subd. (j)(1).) “Hostile work environment sexual harassment occurs when
    unwelcome comments or conduct based on sex unreasonably interfere with an
    employee’s work performance or create an intimidating, hostile, or offensive
    work environment.” (Cal. Code Regs., tit. 2, § 11034, subd. (f)(2).) Where, as
    here, the harassment is committed against an employee by a nonemployee,
    the employer may be liable when “it knows or should have known of the
    conduct and fails to take immediate and appropriate corrective action.”
    (§ 12940, subd. (j)(1); Cal. Code Regs., tit. 2, § 11034, subd. (f)(2)(C)(3).) In
    such situations, courts consider “the extent of the employer’s control and any
    other legal responsibility that the employer may have with respect to the
    conduct of those nonemployees.” (§ 12940, subd. (j)(1).) The employer “shall
    take all responsible steps to prevent harassment from occurring.” (Ibid.)
    6
    Two decisions—Fisher v. San Pedro Peninsula Hospital (1989) 
    214 Cal.App.3d 590
     (Fisher) and Bradley v. Department of Corrections &
    Rehabilitation (2008) 
    158 Cal.App.4th 1612
     (Bradley)—are instructive in
    assessing the sufficiency of plaintiff’s allegations. Although these cases
    concerned harassment by a defendant’s employee (and not by a nonemployee
    as in this case), Fisher addressed the necessity for specific pleading in hostile
    work environment cases, while Bradley discussed the obligation of an
    employer to take sufficient corrective action after a sexual harassment report.
    In Fisher, the court held that a prima facie claim of work environment
    sexual harassment includes the element that “the harassment complained of
    was sufficiently pervasive so as to alter the conditions of employment and
    create an abusive working environment.” (Fisher, supra, 214 Cal.App.3d at
    p. 608.) There, a nurse had brought a FEHA claim predicated on allegations
    that a doctor employed by the defendant “created a hostile work environment
    for [the plaintiff] by his sexual harassment of other women employees in her
    presence,” which included his unwelcome grabbing and kissing of other
    nurses and making offensive sexual comments and gestures. (Fisher, at
    p. 612.) Although the complaint described “in general terms what acts
    occurred and where they occurred,” the Fisher court found the complaint
    “deficient as there [was] no indication of the frequency or intensity with
    which these acts occurred.” (Id. at p. 613.) Specifically, the court asked, “Did
    each alleged act occur once in four years or did the acts occur on a daily or
    weekly basis? Which acts occurred with any frequency—the remarks or the
    offensive touchings? What acts occurred within the FEHA’s one-year statute
    of limitations (§ 12960)?” (Ibid.) While acknowledging that “acts beyond the
    statute of limitations might be relevant to showing a pattern of continuous
    harassment,” the Fisher court concluded that a claim for environmental
    7
    sexual harassment would not be viable where “only a couple of acts occurred
    during the one year preceding the filing of the complaint.” (Ibid.)
    In Bradley, the appellate court explained that “[o]nce an employer is
    informed of the sexual harassment, the employer must take adequate
    remedial measures.” (Bradley, supra, 158 Cal.App.4th at p. 1630.) The
    measures must be “reasonably calculated” to end the current harassment and
    deter future harassment, and the “ ‘reasonableness of an employer’s remedy
    will depend on its ability to stop harassment by the person who engaged in
    harassment.’ ” (Ibid.) If the conduct of a harassing coworker occurs off of the
    work premises where the employer has no control over the harasser, it is not
    liable for the harasser’s action. (See id. at p. 1631.) Though Bradley agreed
    with the employer that “the ‘most significant immediate measure an
    employer can take in response to a sexual harassment complaint is to launch
    a prompt investigation to determine whether the complaint is justified,’ ” the
    court cautioned that initiating an investigation “cannot be the only step
    taken.” (Ibid.) Thus, while the defendant employer undertook an
    investigation and interviewed many individuals, Bradley upheld the jury’s
    finding that its corrective action was insufficient because there was “no
    followup, no evaluation of the need for protection, and no further
    investigation.” (Ibid.) As Bradley recounted, the “sum total” of the
    employer’s response “was to refer [plaintiff Bradley’s] complaint to a bogged-
    down investigative process and to caution Bradley to protect herself.” (Id. at
    p. 1634.) The employer also failed to advise Bradley about what was
    happening to her complaint and did not respond to Bradley’s request for help
    in serving a restraining order on the harasser even though the employer had
    recommended the order. (Ibid.)
    8
    We now turn to the complaint and consider whether the first cause of
    action contains the detail necessary to show that P.W.’s alleged harassment
    was sufficiently pervasive such that it altered the conditions of employment
    and created an abusive working environment (Fisher, supra, 214 Cal.App.3d
    at p. 608) and that defendant failed to take reasonable measures that could
    have stopped the harassment (Bradley, supra, 158 Cal.App.4th at p. 1630).
    The first cause of action lists various examples of P.W.’s alleged
    stalking behaviors, as follows.
    Paragraph IV of the first cause of action summarily alleges that
    defendant’s written report dated April 14, 2015, details “some of the stalking
    behaviors.” While not attached to the complaint, a portion of this report is
    quoted at length in paragraph XIX of the complaint’s general allegations and
    is included in full in the materials that the trial court judicially noticed. The
    report states that defendant investigated plaintiff’s claims of sexual
    harassment by P.W., including incidents of harassment occurring in
    December 2014 through February 2015, and determined the conduct violated
    defendant’s Executive Order 1096, while paragraph IV of the first cause of
    action alleges that defendant’s “investigation confirmed the sexual
    harassment and severe and pervasive conduct” as described in the report.
    Paragraph V identifies 16 examples of unwelcome sexual statements
    made by P.W. In all but one instance, the complaint fails to indicate when
    and how the identified statements were made or how and where they were
    conveyed to plaintiff. That is, there is no indication whether a particular
    statement was made in person and on campus, or by letter or email, or by
    some other means. The one partial exception is the allegation stating:
    “Writing in a December 6, 2018 document stating ‘Doris (Yates) would
    become the love of my life.’ ”
    9
    Paragraph VI alleges P.W. sent unwanted email communications to
    plaintiff, including eight communications on certain identified dates in
    November and December 2014, one on February 28, 2015, and one on
    December 12, 2015. This paragraph simply lists the dates on which emails
    were allegedly sent but fails to identify the content of any particular email.
    Paragraph VI also contains an allegation that “[e]mails continued to be sent
    in 2016, 2017, and 2018,” with no further specificity.
    Paragraph VII alleges approximately 20 other examples of P.W.’s
    stalking behaviors. Ten of the examples are undated, and three explicitly
    pertain to conduct predating defendant’s April 14, 2015 report. Another
    instance allegedly occurred on April 28, 2015, and a total of three others
    allegedly occurred in May and November 2016. The following alleged
    communications occurred in 2018 and 2019: (1) P.W. sent “an email on or
    about 3/6/2018 about ‘. . . showing up on school grounds with a weapon to
    harm others’ ”; (2) P.W. stated “on or about 3/6/2018 that ‘. . . I don’t want
    some one like [plaintiff] to push me to the brink of committing such an act’ ”;
    (3) P.W. sent “12/2019 a LinkedIn Request directed toward [plaintiff] in
    violation of the Restraining Order”; (4) P.W. looked “for [plaintiff] at a
    Campus event on 10/19/2018”; and (5) P.W. “12/30/18 sent a Google hangout
    letter to [plaintiff]”.
    Paragraph VIII alleges in full: “During this general timeframe Plaintiff
    began to receive a high volume of hang-up phone calls at her residence. This
    had not happened in the past.”
    Are these allegations sufficiently specific to state a hostile work
    environment cause of action in violation of FEHA? As Fisher explained, a
    complaint is deficient where it fails to allege facts showing severe and
    pervasive harassment occurring within FEHA’s one-year statute of
    10
    limitations. (Fisher, supra, 214 Cal.App.3d at p. 613.) Here, plaintiff filed a
    DFEH complaint against defendant on August 22, 2018, so we look to
    whether the complaint alleges facts showing that severe and pervasive
    harassment occurred on or after August 22, 2017 (ibid.) and whether those
    acts occurred in the workplace or under circumstances in which defendant
    maintained control or was reasonably positioned to stop the acts (see Bradley,
    supra, 158 Cal.App.4th at pp. 1630–1631).
    As recounted above, paragraphs IV and VI of the first cause of action
    only cite specific examples of P.W.’s alleged harassing behavior that occurred
    before August 22, 2017. Although paragraph V quotes 16 sexual comments
    allegedly made by P.W., 15 of them are listed without any details as to when
    or where or how the particular statements were made. However, it appears
    from judicially noticed documents that the 15 quoted comments were
    contained in emails predating 2015.3 Finally, paragraph VII lists 20
    examples of P.W.’s alleged stalking behavior, but 15 of the 20 examples either
    have no dates associated with them or are alleged to have occurred before
    August 22, 2017.
    Thus, only six out of all the communications and incidents identified in
    the first cause of action—i.e., one cited in paragraph V and five cited in
    paragraph VII—allege events occurring within the one-year limitations
    period and are potentially actionable. (Fisher, supra, 214 Cal.App.3d at
    3     The judicially noticed documents included plaintiff’s “Request for Civil
    Harassment Restraining Orders against [P.W.],” which had been filed in
    Alameda County Superior Court. One of the attachments to that request was
    a printout of a single email—written by P.W. and sent to plaintiff on
    December 3, 2014—which included 14 of the quoted comments in paragraph
    V. Another attachment to the same request was a printout of an email from
    P.W. to plaintiff dated December 9, 2014, which contained the fifteenth
    quoted comment in paragraph V.
    11
    p. 613.) Those six alleged incidents consist of: P.W. sending an email on or
    about March 6, 2018; P.W. making a statement on or about March 6, 2018
    referencing plaintiff; P.W. looking for plaintiff at a campus event on October
    19, 2018; P.W. writing in a December 6, 2018 document about plaintiff; P.W.
    sending a Google hangout letter to plaintiff on December 30, 2018, and P.W.
    sending a LinkedIn request to plaintiff in December 2019.
    Apart from the one allegation stating that P.W. looked for plaintiff at a
    campus event in October 2018, the complaint fails to specify whether any of
    these communications and incidents directly involved plaintiff or whether
    they occurred on defendant’s campus or under circumstances within
    defendant’s control. Notably, two of the five communications allegedly
    occurred over online platforms hosted by LinkedIn and Google. Moreover,
    the allegations concerning the other three 2018 statements or emails are
    bereft of any facts indicating they were made or sent directly to plaintiff. To
    the contrary, judicially noticed documents indicate such statements and
    emails were sent only to plaintiff’s attorney.4
    Considering the totality of the circumstances, we cannot conclude these
    incidents, as alleged, amounted to harassment that was sufficiently severe
    and pervasive to have transformed defendant’s campus into an abusive
    working environment for plaintiff. (Fisher, supra, 214 Cal.App.3d at p. 608.)
    Indeed, even assuming the off-campus communications to plaintiff’s lawyer
    might qualify as harassing conduct that was directed toward plaintiff, the
    4     Specifically, as part of her December 2018 application to renew the
    restraining order against P.W., plaintiff declared under penalty of perjury
    that “[s]ince the issuance of the original Restraining Order I have been forced
    to have continued contact with [P.W.], through my Lawyer, as [P.W.]
    exhausted, unsuccessfully, all appeals.” Notably, there was no mention in
    plaintiff’s declaration that P.W. confronted plaintiff directly.
    12
    complaint pleads no facts that, if proven, would demonstrate defendant’s
    ability to have prevented these or any of the other incidents allegedly
    occurring within the one-year limitations period. (Bradley, supra, 158
    Cal.App.4th at pp. 1630–1631; Fisher, supra, 214 Cal.App.3d at p. 613.)
    Plaintiff has had several informal and formal opportunities to amend in
    the face of defendant’s repeated challenges to the sufficiency of her pleadings.
    Moreover, when the trial court sustained defendant’s demurrer to the second
    amended complaint and granted plaintiff leave to amend, it expressly
    instructed her to “do so with specificity by stating the specific conduct that
    supports her claim of severe and pervasive ‘stalking,’ including precisely
    when it occurred, how often it occurred, and where each such act occurred.”
    In light of plaintiff’s inadequate response to the court’s order, and the
    circumstance that plaintiff has offered no indication of an ability or
    willingness to cure the pleading deficiencies identified by the trial court, we
    see no reasonable possibility of amendments that could satisfy the pleading
    requirements. (See Schulz v. Neovi Data Corp. (2007) 
    152 Cal.App.4th 86
    ,
    97.) Accordingly, the trial court properly sustained the demurrer to this
    cause of action without leave to amend.
    B. Second Cause of Action: Violation of FEHA (Retaliation for
    Asserting Rights Under FEHA)
    FEHA makes it an unlawful employment practice for an employer to
    “discharge, expel, or otherwise discriminate against any person . . . because
    the person has filed a complaint” pursuant to FEHA. (§ 12940, subd. (h).) To
    establish a prima facie case of retaliation under FEHA, the plaintiff “must
    show (1) he or she engaged in a ‘protected activity,’ (2) the employer subjected
    the employee to an adverse employment action, and (3) a causal link existed
    between the protected activity and the employer’s action. [Citations.]”
    (Yanowitz v. L’Oreal USA, Inc. (2005) 
    36 Cal.4th 1028
    , 1042 (Yanowitz).) The
    13
    prohibition against retaliation extends to “the entire spectrum of employment
    actions,” including “adverse treatment that is reasonably likely to impair a
    reasonable employee’s job performance or prospects for advancement or
    promotion.” (Id. at pp. 1054–1055.) “Once an employee establishes a prima
    facie case, the employer is required to offer a legitimate, nonretaliatory
    reason for the adverse employment action.” (Id. at p. 1042.) “If the employer
    produces a legitimate reason for the adverse employment action, the
    presumption of retaliation ‘drops out of the picture,’ and the burden shifts
    back to the employee to prove intentional retaliation.” (Ibid.)
    Plaintiff’s second cause of action contains the following allegations. In
    September 2019, Associate Provost Linda Dobb “stated in substance and
    effect to Plaintiff that because she had asserted her rights under FEHA by
    bringing this lawsuit and was seeking redress of her unwaiveable [sic]
    Statutory Civil Rights for a FEHA violation, she must resign from or step
    down from an Academic Committee, the University Administrative Review
    Committee [the Committee].” Service on committees such as the Committee,
    “while not mandatory, [is] part of the Tenure and post Tenure performance
    review process and [is] important in the standing and advancement of
    Plaintiff’s career and stature within the University Academic Community”
    and “enables Plaintiff to better perform her role as a Tenured member of the
    Faculty . . . .” Ms. Dobb’s use of “mandatory language” in directing plaintiff
    to resign had “a coercive effect” and “would reasonably be received by fellow
    faculty as an attack on Plaintiff’s integrity, ethics and impartiality, damaging
    Plaintiff’s standing and reputation among her fellow members of the
    Academic Community.” Following plaintiff’s amendment of the complaint to
    allege the second cause of action, “Plaintiff received a written communication
    from Dr. Leroy Morishita, President of the University,” stating that
    14
    “ ‘circumstances make it clear that you have a conflict of interest that might
    compromise the Committee’s neutrality if you participate in its reviews . . .’ ”
    After “Plaintiff refused to resign from the Committee,” her term “expired.”
    Although plaintiff “is eligible for re-election” to the Committee, defendant’s
    management have not responded to plaintiff’s inquiries about re-election.
    “Other members of the Committee have not been treated in that fashion.”
    As the trial court found, this second cause of action sufficiently alleges
    that plaintiff engaged in protected activity (i.e., filing a discrimination charge
    with DFEH), but it fails to identify and allege a “substantial and material
    adverse effect on the terms and conditions of the plaintiff’s employment”
    (McRae v. Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation (2006) 
    142 Cal.App.4th 377
    , 387; see Yanowitz, 
    supra,
     36 Cal.4th at p. 1052.) Although plaintiff
    alleges the Academic Provost’s use of mandatory language in directing her to
    resign had “a coercive effect,” there is no allegation that plaintiff actually
    resigned or was otherwise removed from the Committee. To the contrary,
    plaintiff expressly alleges that she refused to resign and that she was eligible
    for re-election after her term on the committee expired. And while plaintiff
    conclusorily alleges that defendant was unresponsive to her re-election
    inquiries, she does not allege that defendant barred or interfered with any
    efforts she may have taken to seek re-election. Accordingly, even assuming
    Ms. Dobb and Dr. Morishita made the comments as alleged, plaintiff points to
    no authority holding that “a single threat of an adverse employment action,
    never carried out”—in and of itself—constitutes an actionable adverse action.
    (Meeks v. AutoZone, Inc. (2018) 
    24 Cal.App.5th 855
    , 879.)
    Again, in light of plaintiff’s inadequate response to the court’s order
    and the lack of any indication that plaintiff can cure the pleading deficiencies
    identified by the trial court, we see no reasonable possibility of amendments
    15
    that could satisfy the pleading requirements. (Schulz v. Neovi Data Corp.,
    supra, 152 Cal.App.4th at p. 97.) Accordingly, the trial court properly
    sustained the demurrer to the second cause of action without leave to amend.
    DISPOSITION
    The judgment of dismissal is affirmed. Defendant is entitled to its
    costs on appeal.
    16
    _________________________
    Fujisaki, J.
    WE CONCUR:
    _________________________
    Tucher, P. J.
    _________________________
    Rodrìguez, J.
    A162131
    17
    

Document Info

Docket Number: A162131

Filed Date: 4/29/2022

Precedential Status: Non-Precedential

Modified Date: 4/29/2022