Short

Plaintiff Kennith L. Short, formerly chief of security at Nevada Union High School, brought suit after the Nevada Joint Union High School District (District) eliminated the high school’s security department, an action which effectively terminated plaintiff’s employment. Plaintiff claimed the elimination of the security department was a subterfuge undertaken to mask the District’s true purpose, which was to get rid of plaintiff.

Plaintiff appeals from a judgment in favor of defendants District and school administrators Theis Murphy, Bruce Griffith, and Kermit Young, entered after the trial court granted defendants’ motions for nonsuit (Code Civ. Proc., § 581c) on plaintiff’s second cause of action for intentional interference with contractual relations and for directed verdict as to plaintiff’s first cause of action for breach of contract.

We conclude that plaintiff’s evidence of breach of contract was sufficient to establish a prima facie case of “dual motive” discharge, i.e., that permissible and impermissible reasons influenced the District’s decision to eliminate the security department. We hold that the District’s decision is unlawful if it would not have been made…