In Simers v. Los Angeles Times Communications, the Court of Appeal affirmed a lower court decision setting aside a jury verdict finding for Plaintiff on a constructive termination claim. Plaintiff was a prominent sports columnist for the Los Angeles Times who was demoted from his position and placed on a performance plan warning of his potential termination. Plaintiff resigned from his position with the Los Angeles Times and took a columnist position with another newspaper. Plaintiff’s demotion occurred both shortly after he experienced seizure-like symptoms that briefly impaired his ability to work and after an investigation was launched regarding Plaintiff’s potential unethical behavior stemming from an alleged desire to use his position as a way to promote his outside work in the entertainment industry.

A constructive discharge occurs when an employer’s intentional or knowingly impermissible conduct effectively forces an employee to resign due to the intolerable or aggravated workplace conditions. Here, the Court found that Plaintiff’s subjective reactions to his employer’s standard disciplinary procedures – criticisms, a brief suspension, an investigation, and a performance plan – could not sustain a constructive discharge claim when they were performed in the absence of a breach of confidentiality and with no other harassment or mistreatment of the plaintiff. The Court reasoned that there was no evidence that any employees other than those involved in the investigation were aware of the nature of the allegations and that although it is unfortunate that Plaintiff suffered from stress and depression stemming from the questions he received regarding his employment status from family and friends, such feelings would naturally be experienced by any employee being investigated for misconduct and are not indicative of an continuous pattern of mistreatment. Importantly, the Court acknowledged that the absence of a valid constructive discharge claim did not preclude the lower court’s finding that Plaintiff’s age or disability was a motivating factor for his demotion.

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