Bruno W. Katz (Partner-San Diego, CA) and John A. Guarino (Of Counsel-San Diego, CA) secured a defense verdict in the San Diego Superior Court for Wilson Elser’s clients, a luxury health spa and the facility’s executive chef. The plaintiff was an employee at the client’s spa, hired to work as the sous chef in April 2019, and reporting to the executive chef. The plaintiff commenced work in May 2019 and alleges that during her employment at the spa, she was harassed by our chef-client and another employee. The plaintiff alleges that she complained to spa management in July concerning the co-worker’s racially insensitive comments and again in late August 2019 regarding the chef’s alleged comment about her being “a feisty Latina.” Her complaint as to the chef was first reported to human resources after she received a poor performance evaluation. In September 2019,  our clients terminated the plaintiff’s employment for business-related reasons, including her ongoing poor performance in her sous chef role and an inappropriate response and comments to subordinate employees after receiving the poor performance evaluation. The plaintiff sued, alleging harassment based on race and gender, and retaliation for her complaints. The complaint alleges two counts of harassment, one against the spa and the other against the executive chef personally, plus two claims of retaliation: common law and whistleblower retaliation.

Following a five-day jury trial, Bruno and John secured a defense verdict in favor of Wilson Elser’s clients on all counts. The jury specifically found no severe and pervasive harassment by the spa or its chef in a 10–2 vote and no traditional retaliation or whistleblower retaliation in an 11–1 vote. Bruno and John’s successful defense strategies also resulted in the court’s adjudging Wilson Elser’s clients to be the prevailing parties in this matter.