Gordon & Rees Los Angeles partners Debra Ellwood Meppen and Anthony Bellone, along with senior counsel Elina Geykher Wineburgh, associate Elizabeth Ayral, and paralegal Marita Navarro, won summary judgment on behalf of their client, a prominent assisted living facility, in the Los Angeles Superior Court.
Plaintiff was terminated after he threatened to kill another employee, just two months after he had been given a final warning and placed on a performance improvement plan. In this employment litigation matter, Plaintiff alleged a total of 10 employment causes of action including wrongful termination, slander and an array of wage-and-hour violation allegations, as against the two company defendants as well as two individually named employee defendants. Through the course of these proceedings, Plaintiff issued a policy limit demand and refused to negotiate any type of settlement. Trial was set for June 2016.
Defendants argued on summary judgment that Plaintiff’s claims for wrongful termination lacked merit since he was terminated for legitimate business reasons, namely that he threatened to kill another employee. In opposition, Plaintiff contended that he never threatened another employee and the alleged incident never occurred.
Based on the evidence Defendants put forth in support of their Motion, the Court concluded that there were no triable issues of material fact as to any of Plaintiff's causes of action.
After hearing extensive oral argument on the matter, the Court granted Defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment in its entirety.