California Appeals Court Overturns Whistleblower Retaliation Award

In recent news, the California Appeals Court overturned a jury award to Ortega, a fired employee in a California whistleblower retaliation case.

The Case: Ortega v. Carson Wild Wings

The Court: California Appeals Court

The Case No.: B309931

The Lawsuit: Ortega v. Carson Wild Wings

The plaintiff in the case, Ortega, sued Carson Wild Wings for whistleblower retaliation after being fired from her server job. Ortega alleges the company fired her in retaliation after she made complaints of wage and hour violations. Ortega’s argument hinged on the timing of her complaints (April 6th and 7th, 2017), with the employment termination following on April 10, 2023. The company claimed the termination was based on allegations that the plaintiff manipulated the tip-out procedure, a recent “water bombing” incident, and past write-ups. The plaintiff denied manipulating the tip-out system, claimed past write-ups were in the distant past and were unrelated to her termination, and that the “water bombing” incident was an accepted “prank” to pull on new servers to teach them to remember to log out of the system. The manager testified she didn’t know about the employee’s meal break complaint when she decided to fire Ortega.

The Jury Trial’s Award: Ortega v. Carson Wild Wings

The jury awarded the former Carson Wild Wings server $200,000 in compensatory damages and $100,000 in punitive damages. The defendant appealed the court’s decision.

On Appeal: Ortega v. Carson Wild Wings

On appeal, the court considered the timeline of events. Following the water-bombing incident that infuriated the general manager, the GM drafted the corrective action memorandum serving as notice of termination listing multiple reasons, including manipulating the tip-tracking system to avoid paying taxes on tips, the water-bombing incident, break violations, and tardiness. The GM forwarded the memorandum to the district manager and HR to request approval for the employee’s termination on April 6, 2017. After sending the email, the general manager left for the day. Later that evening, during the night shift, the plaintiff’s shift manager asked her to clock out for her meal break but work through it and take her break later. The employee complained about never receiving a meal break around midnight. On April 7, 2017, the plaintiff was asked to work through her scheduled meal break again. She complained to another shift manager about the missed breaks and other wage and hour violations. On April 9, 2017, after reviewing the general manager’s corrective action memo, the company suspended Ortega before her shift started. On April 10, 2017, Ortega was terminated from her position. Considering the timeline of events, the California Appeals Court reversed the jury trial’s award, finding insufficient evidence to support the award. The uncontested evidence showed the employer’s supervisor did not know about her labor law violation complaints when deciding to request termination of employment, so the corrective action could not be retaliation.

If you have questions about how to file a California workplace retaliation or whistleblower retaliation lawsuit, please get in touch with Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik DeBlouw LLP. Experienced employment law attorneys are ready to assist you in various law firm offices in San Diego, San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Riverside, and Chicago.