She Got The Boot

Did you know that any case that you find at your local county law library has been appealed?  Yep.  If the case was not appealed, your local county law library would not have any more access to it than you do (via a simple superior court records search).  

In fact, the only place you could find a record of a non-appealed case is in the courthouse where the matter was heard OR, if the case is particularly sexy, it might wind up as a notation in O'Brien's Evaluator.  What is O'Brien's Evaluator?  It's a crystal ball of sorts that helps litigators determine if they have a case that will result in a win (and cash).

Today's entry is one such case.  In the 2015 edition of O'Brien's, I found reference to Triplett v. The Beverly Hills Hotel.  Crystal Triplett was a one time Communications Manager of The Beverly Hills Hotel ("Hotel"). Seems at one point, Ms. Triplett worked in Chicago and was offered employment in Los Angeles (to which she moved).  One day, Ms. Triplett woke up with numbness in her right toe claiming that she had to walk around too much at work. Thereafter, she started workers' compensation leave.  

Thing is, why is a Communications Manger walking at all? I'm guessing Ms. Triplett was just trying to find ways not to go back to work (and still get paid).  So, while she was still on leave, Ms. Triplett asked Hotel to let her 

1. wear tennis shoes, 
2. come to work with crutches, and 
3. come to work with a mobility scooter

Hotel responded yes, no, yes.  Then, while she was still on leave, Hotel reorganized resulting in Ms. Triplett's position being eliminated.  Whoops!  Seems her plan to live high on the hog and get paid for a numb toe backfired.  So, Ms. Triplett did what every red-blooded Californian would do; she filed a lawsuit for

• Physical disability discrimination,
• Failure to accommodate a physical disability,
• Failure to engage in an interactive process,
• Wrongful termination in violation of public policy, and 
• Violation of (California) Labor Code 970.

I really love lawsuits where people aren't paying attention to what has happened - and don't go blaming her attorney because he's just doing his job in representing a losing case. True, I can't believe they took the case and I really hope they didn't take it on contingency (because Ms. Triplett didn't have chance in Hades of winning).

Anyway, in this case, Hotel did try to accommodate her "disability" (i.e. her numb toe - which really wasn't a disability since it didn't have anything to do with how she conducted her job).  Also, Hotel was able to show that her position was terminated because there was an economic downturn and it had nothing to do with the fact that she was being a flake.

In the end, Ms. Triplett lost her case and while she tried to appeal her case, that, too, ended poorly for her.  Probably a good thing this case was never reported.  I mean would you want your face plastered hither and yon as the example of what not to do?

Yeah, me neither.