HACLA

In Schifando v. City of Los Angeles (2003) 31 Cal.4th 1074 [ 6 Cal.Rptr.3d 457 , 79 P.3d 569 ] (Schifando), the California Supreme Court determined that a city employee who claimed to have suffered employment-related discrimination was not required to exhaust both the internal administrative remedy in the city charter and the administrative remedy provided by the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA; Gov. Code, § 12900 et seq.), before filing a FEHA disability discrimination claim in superior court. In this case, we must resolve a question identified in Schifando but not addressed, that is, whether a public employee who claims employment-related discrimination, and asserts both FEHA claims and nonstatutory claims for wrongful demotion and constructive termination in violation of public policy must exhaust the internal administrative remedy provided by his or her employer with respect to those nonstatutory claims before filing a civil action. We conclude that Schifando’s exemption must also apply to FEHA-related nonstatutory claims when the resolution of those claims would have a preclusive impact on the FEHA claim. To require exhaustion of internal…