Judge: Maurice A. Leiter, Case: 22STCV17034, Date: 2023-01-18 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 22STCV17034    Hearing Date: January 18, 2023    Dept: 54

Hearing Date: January 18, 2023

Department 54, Judge Maurice A. Leiter

Demurrer to Complaint and Motion to Strike

Moving Party: Defendants Atlantic Solutions Group, Inc., Adam Kidan, Denise Gonzalez and Ivette Nieves

Responding Party: Plaintiff Socorro Jacobo Sandoval

T/R:     DEFENDANTS’ DEMURRER IS SUSTAINED WITH LEAVE TO AMEND.

PLAINTIFF TO FILE AND SERVE A FIRST AMENDED COMPLAINT WITHIN 30 DAYS OF NOTICE OF RULING. DEFENDANTS TO FILE AND SERVE A RESPONSE WITHIN 30 DAYS THEREAFTER.

            DEFENDANTS TO NOTICE.

The Court considers the moving papers, opposition, and reply.

BACKGROUND

            On May 23, 2022, Plaintiff Socorro Jacobo Sandoval sued Defendants Atlantic Solutions Group, Inc. et. al., alleging twenty causes of action for FEHA violations and wrongful termination. Plaintiff alleges she was terminated because of her gender, because she needed lactation accommodations, and because she contracted COVID-19 at the workplace.

ANALYSIS

A demurrer to a complaint may be taken to the whole complaint or to any of the causes of action in it.  (CCP § 430.50(a).)  A demurrer challenges only the legal sufficiency of the complaint, not the truth of its factual allegations or the plaintiff's ability to prove those allegations.  (Picton v. Anderson Union High Sch. Dist. (1996) 50 Cal. App. 4th 726, 732.)  The court must treat as true the complaint's material factual allegations, but not contentions, deductions or conclusions of fact or law.  (Id. at 732-33.)  The complaint is to be construed liberally to determine whether a cause of action has been stated.  (Id. at 733.)

Defendants demur to the entire complaint on the grounds that it is uncertain and fails to state sufficient facts to establish the causes of action. The Court agrees. Plaintiff’s allegations consist of the general language of the elements of the causes of action and these facts: Plaintiff requested a lactation schedule and pump station, and Defendants told her to pump in a toilet stall; Plaintiff contracted COVID-19 and so Defendants cut Plaintiff’s work hours by half; and at some point Plaintiff’s employment was terminated. This is insufficient to support Plaintiff’s twenty causes of action for FEHA violations and wrongful termination. There are, for example, no facts that show harassment or adverse employment action for pregnancy/gender, and the allegations surrounding Plaintiff’s COVID-19 infection are vague.

Defendants’ demurrer is SUSTAINED with leave to amend. The motion to strike is MOOT.