Judge: Jon R. Takasugi, Case: 22STCV11119, Date: 2024-02-02 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 22STCV11119    Hearing Date: March 5, 2024    Dept: 17

Superior Court of California

County of Los Angeles

DEPARTMENT 17

TENTATIVE RULING

Plaintiff’s motion for leave to amend to file an SAC is GRANTED. 

On 4/1/2022, Plaintiff Hasmik Yaghobyan (Plaintiff) filed suit against County of Los Angeles and Fermando Lemus, alleging: (1) sexual harassment; (2) sexual battery; (3) retaliation; (4) failure to prevent discrimination; (5) disability discrimination; (6) failure to accommodate; and (7) failure to engage in the interactive process.

            On 12/14/2023, Plaintiff moved to file a Second Amended Complaint (SAC).

Discussion 

            Plaintiff seeks to leave to amend to delete his allegations regarding disability discrimination, and to add allegations of race/ethnic discrimination.

The policy favoring leave to amend is so strong that it is an abuse of discretion to deny an amendment unless the adverse party can show meaningful prejudice. (Atkinson v. Elk Corp. (2003) 109 Cal.App.4th 739, 761.) Here, no prejudice will result from Plaintiff’s deletion of disability related causes of action. While there will be some prejudice by Plaintiff’s new allegations of race discrimination, this claim is supported by facts which could show race discrimination. For example, on 4/1/2020, Plaintiff allegedly sent her supervisor an email complaining about her refusal to approve her time card, which Plaintiff viewed as veiled discrimination. Plaintiff concluded her email with, "you must really hate Armenians." (Motion, 3: 19-20.) As such, Plaintiff has alleged facts which could show that she complained of racial discrimination during her employment.

In opposition, Defendant argues that Plaintiff’s motion is untimely:

Plaintiff’s DFEH complaint (which was conveniently not attached to the Motion for Leave) includes allegations that the County discriminated against, and harassed Plaintiff based on her race and national origin. Plaintiff was thus required to file her civil claims for discrimination based on race/ethnicity, if at all, no later than March 22, 2023. Plaintiff failed to do so. Accordingly, her proposed amended claim for discrimination on the basis of race/ethnicity is time-barred under Government Code section 12965, subdivision (b), and her Motion must therefore be denied as this Court has no jurisdiction to permit the amendment

(Opp., 2: 9-16.)

However, the cases cited to by Defendant like Hall v. Goodwill Industries of Southern California (2011) 193 Cal. App. 4th 718 and Acuna v. San Diego Gas & Electric Co., 217 Cal. App. 4th 1402 address a failure to timely file a FEHA lawsuit, not the issue of later amendment of a timely filed Complaint.

Given that the motion to continue trial was granted, and trial is now not until 9/9/2024, the Court finds insufficient prejudice to deny this motion.

Based on the foregoing, Plaintiff’s motion for leave to amend to file an SAC is granted. 

It is so ordered.

Dated:  March    , 2024

   Hon. Jon R. Takasugi
   Judge of the Superior Court

Parties who intend to submit on this tentative must send an email to the court at smcdept17@lacourt.org by 4 p.m. the day prior as directed by the instructions provided on the court website at www.lacourt.org.  If a party submits on the tentative, the party’s email must include the case number and must identify the party submitting on the tentative.  If all parties to a motion submit, the court will adopt this tentative as the final order.  If the department does not receive an email indicating the parties are submitting on the tentative and there are no appearances at the hearing, the motion may be placed off calendar.  For more information, please contact the court clerk at (213) 633-0517.