Judge: Mark C. Kim, Case: 22LBCV00555, Date: 2023-02-28 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 22LBCV00555    Hearing Date: February 28, 2023    Dept: S27

1.     Background Facts

Plaintiff, Michael Colbert filed this action against Defendants, City of Long Beach, Michael Erdeiji, Joel Cook, and William Jarman for discrimination and related claims.  Plaintiff alleges he was employed by the City in its police department, of which the individual defendants were officers, and alleges he was the victim of ongoing and systemic racial discrimination (Plaintiff is African American). 

On 7/12/22, the Court heard Defendants’ demurrer to Plaintiff’s First Amended Complaint, which he filed on 12/28/21.  The FAC included causes of action for:

·         Wrongful Demotion in Violation of FEHA;

·         Discrimination on the Basis of Race – FEHA;

·         Harassment – FEHA;

·         Retaliation – FEHA;

·         Failure to Investigate – FEHA;

·         Failure to Prevent – FEHA.

The Court issued a detailed ruling sustaining the demurrer with leave to amend.  On 8/01/22, Plaintiff filed his operative Second Amended Complaint.  The SAC includes causes of action for harassment, failure to investigate harassment, and failure to prevent harassment, all of which sound under FEHA.  The SAC is pled against the City, Erdelji, and Jarman; the remaining defendants from the FAC are not named in the SAC.  Notably, on 11/22/22, Plaintiff dismissed Jarman from the action, leaving only the City and Erdelji as defendants.  Erdelji filed an answer to the SAC on 9/19/22.

2.     Taken Off Calendar

In the December 22, 2022 Minute Order, the Court ordered the following:

“At least one week prior to the continued hearing date, each party must file a declaration detailing the meet and confer efforts that were undertaken in connection with this ruling.  Additionally, each party must file a brief providing analysis of any issue that has not been resolved.  While tedious, the parties must be prepared to brief the allegations of the SAC either paragraph by paragraph or by groupings of paragraphs.  The City cannot simply argue that ALL of the conduct is unrelated, without discussion of the different allegations at different times, and Plaintiff cannot simply argue that ALL of the conduct IS related.  The Court will not go through the SAC on its own, without the parties’ arguments, in an attempt to determine which allegations potentially implicate the continuing violations doctrine and which do not.”

As of February 23, 2023, parties have failed to file declarations as ordered by the Court.  Accordingly, the hearing is taken off calendar.

Parties who intend to submit on this tentative must send an email to the court at gdcdepts27@lacourt.org indicating intention to submit on the tentative as directed by the instructions provided on the court website at www.lacourt.org.  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.  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 the parties do not submit on the tentative, they should arrange to appear remotely.