Saba v. Unisys Corp.

114 F.Supp.3d 974

Fadi Saba, Plaintiff,

v.Unisys Corporation, Defendant.

Case No. 14–cv–01310–WHO

United States District Court, N.D. California.

Signed July 17, 2015

Charles Jerome Wisch, Law Offices of Charles J. Wisch, San Francisco, CA, for Plaintiff.

Andrew Jonathon Sommer, Matthew A. Goodin, Steven R. Blackburn, Epstein Becker & Green, P.C., Eric Meckley, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, Elizabeth Jane Boca, Reed Smith, San Francisco, CA, Nancy Villarreal, Morgan Lewis and Bockius LLP, Palo Alto, CA, for Defendant.

ORDER GRANTING UNISYS'S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT AND DENYING SABA'S MOTION FOR PARTIAL SUMMARY JUDGMENT

WILLIAM H. ORRICK, United States District Judge

Plaintiff Fadi Saba filed suit against Unisys Corporation ("Unisys"), his former employer, after he was terminated in 2013. He brings two causes of action for wrongful termination in violation of a fundamental public policy, arguing that Unisys terminated him (i) in retaliation for a prior lawsuit that he brought against Unisys for California Labor Code violations and (ii) for reporting Unisys's concealment of its failure to back up files for one of its clients, a government contractor that was subject to a hold order from the U.S. Department of Justice. He also states a cause of action for wrongful termination in violation of the California Family Rights Act ("CFRA"), arguing that Unisys terminated him in retaliation for taking family leave on several occasions, and a claim under California law for intentional infliction of emotional distress ("IIED") based upon Unisys's conduct in terminating him.

Unisys gives three reasons for terminating Saba: he was unable to work for one of two main customers of the group within Unisys to which he was assigned; the group's other main customer reduced its contractual requirements from Unisys so that approximately 2 rather than 5 full-time employees were needed to service it; and Unisys itself suffered a financial reversal and terminated 54 employees, including Saba, in a reduction in force. Saba offers no evidence to dispute those reasons, and his evidence of pretext is weak to non-existent. Accordingly, I GRANT Unisys's motion for summary judgment. Although Saba established a prima facie case for his causes of action based upon retaliation for various protected behavior, Unisys met its burden of showing that it had a legitimate reason for terminating him. Construing the facts in the light most favorable to Saba, there is no evidence from which a jury could infer that Unisys's termination of Saba was a pretext for retaliating against him in violation of the law. In addition, Saba's IIED claim is barred by the exclusive remedy provisions of California workers' compensation law. Because I GRANT Unisys's motion for summary judgment, I DENY as moot Saba's motion for partial summary judgment on two of Unisys's affirmative defenses based upon "after-acquired evidence" and "unclean hands."

BACKGROUND¹

I. SABA'S WORK AT UNISYS AND FIRST FOUR REQUESTS FOR FAMILY MEDICAL LEAVE

Saba began working for Unisys in 2003. Saba Decl. ¶ 4 (Dkt. No. 96). At that time, he lived and worked in Pennsylvania. Id. ¶¶ 2–4. Since he began work, Saba has always worked in positions relating to data services and retention. Id. ¶ 4. In 2007, Saba moved from Pennsylvania to California, continuing to work remotely for Unisys. Id. ¶ 6.

Between 2007 and 2009, Saba's supervisor was Robert Claycomb. Id. ¶ 6. Around July of 2009, Rachael Hartzler replaced Claycomb as Saba's interim supervisor. Id. Hartlzer reported to John Buckner, the Manager of the Global Windows group. Id.

In 2009, Saba asserts that he attempted to obtain family medical leave for the birth of his third child, who was born on October 29, 2009. Id. ¶ 7. Saba "prepared the required documentation to obtain family medical leave" and forwarded it to Hartzler for approval. Id. ¶ 7. According to Saba, this request was ignored, and Human Resources later claimed that it had no copy of his leave request. Id. He did not take the leave.

In May of 2010, Donald Capbell replaced Hartzler as Saba's supervisor. Id. ¶ 8. Capbell also reported to Buckner. Id. Saba attempted to take leave in April of 2011, after his child was injured in an accident. Id. ¶ 10. Buckner instructed Saba not to take family medical leave, but instead to take vacation time. Id. Again, Saba ultimately did not take any leave. Id.

Hartzler became Saba's supervisor for the second time in 2011, and he was assigned to her group between May and September of that year. Id. ¶ 11. Buckner told Saba that the transfer was due to his superior skills in with automation, primarily scripting. Id. Buckner also testified that he moved Saba to a group where he was needed. Buckner Depo. 32:20–33:7 (Dkt. No. 100). Around this time, Saba told his supervisors that he planned to take family medical leave in February of 2012 for the birth of another child. Saba Decl. ¶ 11; Saba Ex. 7.²

In February of 2012, Saba submitted the application for family medical leave. Saba Decl. ¶ 14. He initially requested partial leave of two hours per day for one month. Id. ; Saba Ex. 11. Hartzler did not want Saba to take partial leave, and instead instructed him to take full days off. Saba Decl. ¶ 15; Saba Ex. 12. In an email to Saba, she stated that "[w]orking a couple hours per day won't allow you the full separation from work responsibilities that Family Medical Leave should provide, and it's not necessary given the coverage already in place." Saba Ex. 12. Saba responded to Hartzler's email, stating that "while I appreciate your offer that I consider full days off ... I feel more comfortable with my request as I have submitted it." Saba Ex. 13. In an email to a supervisor, Hartzler asked whether "it's within my rights as [Saba's] manager to deny partial and only allow full family leave." Saba Ex. 15. Ultimately, Saba adjusted his request to four hours off per day, and his request was approved by Human Resources. Saba Decl. ¶ 15; Saba Exs. 14, 16.

In July of 2012, Saba told Hartzler that he planned to take the remainder of his family medical leave in January of 2013. Saba Decl. ¶ 17; Saba Ex. 19. After submitting a formal leave request, Saba's request was granted in late 2012. Saba Exs. 20, 21. According to Saba, Hartzler told him that taking the leave "would probably make it hard for you to get involved" in future work. Saba Decl. ¶ 17. Saba took his approved family medical leave in January of 2013. Id. ¶ 19. According to Hartzler's deposition, Hartzler never took family medical leave while working at Unisys and no one other than Saba had taken formally approved family medical leave. Hartzler Depo. 52:17–19, 53:20–25 (Dkt. No. 100).

II. SABA'S WORK WITH THE CITY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND TASC

Hartzler's group ("Core Team 3"), to which Saba was assigned, worked primarily with two clients. Hartzler Decl. ¶ 7 (Dkt. No. 82). The parties do not dispute that one client, the City of Minneapolis (the "City"), required employees to pass a background check before they could work with it. See id. ¶ 10. Saba asserts that he completed a questionnaire for the City in 2011, but that the City misplaced it and required him to submit a second questionnaire in January 2012. Saba Decl. ¶¶ 13.1–13.2. The City then claimed the second questionnaire was incomplete, and sent Saba an encrypted email that allegedly contained personal, confidential information. Id. ¶ 13.2. Saba was particularly upset by this because he had been a victim of identity theft in the past. Id. ¶¶ 13.3–13.4. Without a completed questionnaire, the City refused to process Saba's clearance further, see Saba Decl. ¶ 13.6, and Saba did not receive the clearance, rendering him unable to work with the City.

Saba sent several emails to Hartzler and Unisys's Human Resources department, discussing his difficulties in obtaining security clearance for the City and his displeasure at the City's treatment of his confidential information. Id. ¶ 13.6; Saba Ex. 9, 10. Given the disclosure of his private information, Saba requested that Unisys change his name on its records. Saba Ex. 10. Hartzler denied that request. Saba Decl. ¶ 16. Saba ignored her denial and changed his name in Unisys's records anyway. Id.

Core Team 3's other client, with whom Saba primarily worked, was "TASC." TASC is a government contractor that provides services to a number of government agencies, including the Department of Defense. Hull Depo. 35:3–14 (Dkt. No. 100). Between September of 2012 and his termination, Saba's job duties included weekly "incident calls" with TASC. Saba Depo. at 332:4–25 (Dkt. No. 87–1). An "incident" was a technical issue that Unisys employees were assigned to resolve. Id. at 324:4–6.

Saba noticed in August of 2012 that TASC data was not being backed up as it was supposed to. Saba Decl. ¶ 22. He was told by Brian Socolofsky and Ezra Gray, who were part of Unisys's backup team, to tell TASC that the backup team was "working on it," although Saba believed that they were not doing anything. Saba Depo. 242:18–243:19. He sent an email to several people, including Hartzler, stating that the files "simply do not have restore revisions for the needed dates." Saba Ex. 28. He repeated this opinion in an email sent in January of 2013. Saba Ex. 29. Although Saba was assigned to discuss technical issues with TASC, he claims that he was instructed not to disclose the extent of the problem. Saba Decl. ¶ 24. Instead, the Unisys backup team told Saba to inform TASC that Unisys was "working on it." Id. In February of 2013, Saba sent an email that discussed the backup failure to a group of recipients, including Hartzler and the backup team. See Saba Ex. 31 ("we won [']t be able to restore any files from the T: drive and due to the limitations of DPM, this is no surprise and was essentially predicted. That's an ugly truth.").

TASC received a legal hold order from the DOJ in the spring of 2013. Hull Depo. 53:5–55:10. TASC informed Unisys of the hold on March 20 (Saba...