A separation agreement won't block a company from shielding its staff, the justices found
A California appeals court said employers can't bargain away their power to seek a workplace violence restraining order, even inside a separation agreement.
The ruling, issued July 6, 2026, by the Fourth District Court of Appeal, gives HR leaders and employment lawyers a clear signal about the reach — and the limits — of a release in a departure deal. The core holding: some protections simply aren't yours to sign away.
At the center was the Adelanto Elementary School District and its former superintendent. Three executive assistants who worked closely with the district's board reported roughly two years of conduct that they said left them afraid. The trial court found the former superintendent had engaged in a harassing course of conduct toward each of them, and he did not dispute that finding on appeal.
The opinion laid out the pattern in detail. He texted one assistant a photo of her waiting in line at a Chipotle, the court said, adding, "We saw a strange person at Chipotle. Police have been notified." Another was sent a nighttime photo of her own home. A third received a message about her neighborhood that read, "visited my special friend last night in Barstow." In one office encounter, the court recounted, he poked an employee and told her, "Your mistakes are killing me!" He denied the poking and gave benign explanations for the messages; the trial court found some accounts...
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