When an employee termination is on the table, employers know that a supporting investigation is important, as we recently discussed on GT’s The Performance Review podcast, available here. A recent decision from the California Court of Appeal – Garcia-Brower v. Premier Auto. Imps. of CA, LLC, 55 Cal. App. 5th 961 (2020) – illustrates the point.
Tracey Molina applied to work at Premier Automotive Imports of California, LLC in January of 2014. On her job application, she chose not to disclose an expunged conviction for misdemeanor grand theft. That was entirely proper; such convictions need not be disclosed under California law. Premier’s third-party background check service provided a report that disclosed no conviction. Relying on the application and report, Premier hired Molina in February 2014.
The next month, the Department of Motor Vehicles incorrectly informed Premier that Molina had an active (non-expunged) criminal conviction for grand theft. Premier decided to terminate Molina. At the termination meeting – and after the termination decision had been made – Molina tried to explain that her conviction had been dismissed. Premier did not change course. It terminated Molina for...
