Runyon

When an employee of the California State University (CSU) claims he or she suffered retaliation for making a protected disclosure under the California Whistleblower Protection Act (the Act) (Gov. Code, § 8547 et seq.), and CSU, after an internal investigation, rejects the employee’s claim of retaliation, must the employee obtain a writ of mandate overturning CSU’s decision before he or she may bring an action for damages under section 8547.12? We hold CSU employees, like employees of state boards and agencies (see State Bd. of Chiropractic Examiners v. Superior Court (2009) 45 Cal.4th 963, 978 [ 89 Cal.Rptr.3d 576 , 201 P.3d 457 ]), need not exhaust the judicial remedy of a mandate petition before pursuing the judicial remedy for which the Act expressly provides—an action for damages.

Procedural Background

Because the issues before us are entirely procedural, we will not rehearse here the factual details of plaintiff’s complaint or the evidence for and against those allegations presented in connection with defendants’ summary judgment motion. In brief, plaintiff, a tenured professor in the College of Business Administration at CSU Long Beach, was chair of that college’s…