George

The California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board (Agency) appeals from a judgment entered against it after a jury found that it had unlawfully retaliated against its employee, Cynthia Francene George. The Agency suspended George, who was employed as an administrative law judge, on three occasions subsequent to her filing a charge with the Department of Fair Employment and Housing alleging that travel assignments were made discriminatorily in the Fresno office.

We hold that the doctrine of res judicata does not preclude a state employee from pursuing both internal administrative civil service remedies and those available under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (Gov. Code, § 12900 et seq.). The doctrine of collateral estoppel may act to preclude a retaliation claim if issues decided in the administrative action eliminate a necessary element of the employee’s case. In this case, however, the administrative agency’s findings do not eliminate a necessary element of George’s retaliation action. We also conclude there was sufficient evidence to support the jury’s verdict. The judgment is affirmed.

In the unpublished portion of this opinion, we also reject on…