Cambareri v. Apple Inc.

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LINDA CAMBARERI, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. APPLE INC., et al., Defendants and Respondents

H050641

California Court of Appeals, Sixth District

February 13, 2024

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED

Santa Clara County Super. Ct. No. 18CV333345

ADAMS J. ^[*]

Plaintiff Linda Cambareri sued Apple Inc. and one of its subsidiaries FileMaker, Inc. (Defendants), for employment discrimination and retaliation under the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) (Gov. Code, § 12900 et seq.), harassment, unpaid wages, and wrongful termination. After the trial court sustained without leave to amend Defendants' demurrer to the causes of action for harassment and wrongful termination Defendants moved for summary judgment and summary adjudication on the remaining claims. The trial court granted the motion and entered judgment in favor of Defendants.

In this appeal, Cambareri challenges the trial court's summary judgment in favor of Apple on all claims, and the summary adjudication of her discrimination, retaliation and unpaid wages claims. Our de novo review produces a mixed result. Summary judgment in favor of Apple was appropriate, as was summary adjudication of the unpaid wages claim. However, we find that summary adjudication was improperly granted as to Cambareri's discrimination and retaliation claims against FileMaker. We will therefore reverse the judgment and remand the matter for further proceedings in the trial court.

I. Factual And Procedural Background^[1]

FileMaker is a "workplace innovation platform that enables users to create and run custom applications to store information manage projects, and track assets, among other functions, across iPad, iPhone, Windows, Mac, and the internet." Although FileMaker has been a wholly-owned subsidiary of Apple since 1987, it registers as a separate corporate entity with the California Secretary of State. Cambareri began working as an inside sales representative at FileMaker on December 4, 2006.

A. Events Between 2008 and 2012

According to Defendants, Cambareri had a documented history of problematic workplace behavior between 2008 and 2012. In her 2008 performance review, Cambareri's manager, Mike Alvarado, wrote that Cambareri "is a hard worker who comes to work with selling on her mind," but "makes a difficult job more difficult and at times unpleasant for not only herself but also those around her." As feedback, one of her coworkers wrote: "[Cambareri] has been the most difficult team member that I have encountered while at FileMaker. She is very negative and her strong personality does not allow for open communication. [Cambareri] does not accept responsibility, but rather passes blame for poor performance. I have not seen her act in the best interest of other team members, nor follow any consistent sales process." Another coworker wrote: "Linda is prevented from being more successful by her aggression."

In her 2009 performance review, Alvarado noted that Cambareri needed to "[c]orrect behaviors that are not in the best interest of the Company or your team." Cambareri responded in the "employee's comments" section, writing: "I believe that I needed improvement as far as vocalizing my dissatisfaction with certain things and I have improved."

For Cambareri's 2009 mid-year evaluation, Alvarado wrote the following under the topic "Teamwork": "[Cambareri] works well with her teammates. However, one area of concern is [Cambareri's] tendency to share her dissatisfaction with a situation or a decision. Some of [Cambareri's] peers have commented on this behavior. No one expects complete agreement and sometimes decisions don't go the desired way; however, excessive venting causes distractions, dissension and perceptions of unprofessional behavior."

In Cambareri's 2010 performance review, Alvarado wrote that Cambareri "often creates an unproductive work environment by demonstrating a lack of respect for teammates, sales processes and/or procedures that she does not agree with." Alvarado also wrote that while Cambareri "has solid technical expertise and often exceeds her metrics and results, her workplace behavior and failure to work and communicate effectively with her teammates . . . overshadow her positive contributions and impede her success." Cambareri responded to these comments by writing: "The categories that I was unsatisfactory on are superficially plausible but wrong .... Who is the senior representative I am supposed to respect? . . . I was very open to getting some ideas on how to be even more successful and possibly some constructive criticism on how better to do my job. This review is neither."

FileMaker issued a documented coaching to Cambareri in October 2010, which outlined areas where Cambareri "need[ed] to immediately improve [her] performance." The documented coaching included the following statement under the heading "Teamwork": "[Cambareri] consistently voices her displeasure of others on and around the Sales floor. [Cambareri] has alienated and had a demoralizing impact on the Americas Sales team to the extent that most if not all of the Business Account Managers or Inside Sales Representatives have raised concerns about working with her or having her on their team." It also included a description of Cambareri's communication style as "often abrasive, overly direct, confrontational and critical," and noted that "[r]ather than raising her issues to Sales Management and/or HR and discussing them in private, she often raises them openly on the sales floor." FileMaker notified Cambareri in the documented coaching that "[f]ailure to show immediate significant improvement or failure to successfully complete the objectives above may result in termination of your employment," and "[r]ecurrence of the same or other performance issues after completion of this action may result in termination without further coaching or notice."

In 2012, Alvarado spoke with Cambareri "regarding [her] conduct on the sales floor . . . as well as statements made by a few teammates regarding the implications and use of the word liar" directed at Alvarado. Cambareri told Alvarado she was discussing someone else and did not refer to him as a liar. Alvarado noted this was "not the first incident of this nature and it cannot continue," and reminded Cambareri he had previously spoken to her about "professional behaviors/conduct" and had given her "guidance on how to [appropriately] . . . vent or express [her] dissatisfaction." Alvarado reiterated that conversations unrelated to work should be conducted away from the sales floor.

B. Events Between 2014 and June 2015

On November 19, 2014, Cambareri sent an e-mail to Ryan McCann, a senior sales director, entitled "Keep doing the right thing." At that time, Cambareri's direct manager was Jill Horn, a female employee over 40 years old. Cambareri wrote that Horn told her to call leads and not to e-mail them. She continued: "Really? I only do that when I get 200 in 2 days because of [sic] someone else flicked [sic] up.[¶] I am really trying to have a good attitude, did not last too long ....[¶] I will just keep being the worker bee. I am not letting anyone beat me this quarter. I will just focus on that." Cambareri also copied into the e-mail an article entitled "How to Lose a Great Employee in 10 Ways." In reference to the article, Cambareri wrote she sent the article to McCann "to keep doing what you are doing and not forget why people worked hard for you."

On January 15, 2015, Horn issued a final warning to Cambareri. The final warning stated: "On January 7, 2015, new Territory assignments were sent out to the Americas Sales team via email. You immediately went to Ryan McCann's cubicle and in a loud voice exclaimed, 'What the fuck?' because the territory assignments were not what you had expected. Several people in this open cubicle area heard your outburst. At the conclusion of your rant, Ryan asked if you wanted to talk about it and you said 'not really' and walked away." The final warning also discussed a meeting that occurred on December 2, 2014, during which Cambareri said she "did not think that any time should be spent following up with leads," which "created an awkward environment in that meeting." After the first meeting, "Brad [Freitag]^[2] called the [team] back into another meeting and stated . . . calling Leads is an important part of the job. During this meeting, you challenged Brad and demanded that he do the math related to how many leads you could call each day in addition to other administrative tasks." In conclusion, the final warning stated: "As a result of your unprofessional and inappropriate workplace behavior, you are being issued this Final Warning. Any further inappropriate workplace conduct will result in further disciplinary action, up to and including immediate termination of your employment."

After the January 15 incident, Cambareri took a four-day "cooling off period" away from the office. On January 16, 2015, Cambareri e-mailed Ben Cottarel, another manager, with a "[r]ebuttal." Cambareri wrote that she "was being retaliated against because my management thought I went to Bill and Dave."^[3] Cambareri explained that she was "walking by Bill Epling's office and he called me in and Bill and Dave Williams asked if I could discuss my take on leads with them. Of course I said yes. I answered truthfully and accurately based on my extensive experience and success here." She continued: "[A]fter my meeting with Bill and Dave[,] Jill called me into a meeting. That is where she was hostile and accused me of 'running to Bill and Dave.'" Cambareri also indicated that Freitag had mentioned she "went to Bill and Dave" during the meeting on December 2, and she realized she was being "singled out and treated hostile because of it."

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