In response to a certified question posed by the United States Court of Appeal for the Ninth Circuit, the California Supreme Court on Jan. 27, 2022, resolved a years-long split among California courts by confirming that an employee plaintiff advancing a claim of retaliation pursuant to California Labor Code section 1102.5 may prevail by showing that a retaliatory motive was merely a contributing factor behind an adverse employment action. Plaintiff-employees are not required to meet the McDonnell Douglas test, which employs burden-shifting between the plaintiff and the employer.
The Facts
The underlying case in Lawson v. PPG Architectural Finishes Inc. involved a former territory manager who filed a lawsuit in federal court advancing a whistleblower retaliation claim against his employer pursuant to California Labor Code section 1102.5. In granting the employer’s motion for summary judgment, the federal trial court applied the three-part McDonnell Douglas test to evaluate Lawson’s section 1102.5 claim. Under this test, the employee must first establish that an adverse employment action was somehow causally linked to some protected activity in which the employee engaged. Next, the employer has the burden of articulating a legitimate, non-retaliatory business reason for taking the adverse employment action against the employee. Upon doing so, the burden shifts back to the employee to demonstrate that the employer’s articulated “legitimate” reason is only a pretext for...
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