Avila

INTRODUCTION

Plaintiff and appellant Henry Avila (plaintiff) appeals from a summary judgment entered against him on his claims that he was discharged from his employment with Chelsea Food Services (Chelsea), a division of defendant and respondent Continental Airlines, Inc. (Continental), in violation of the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) (Gov. Code, § 12940 et seq.), 1 California’s Moore-Brown-Roberti Family Rights Act (§ 12945.2; CFRA), and public policy. We affirm the summary adjudication of plaintiff’s FEHA claims because plaintiff failed to raise a triable issue as to whether the Continental employees who made the decision to discharge him knew of his alleged disability at the time they made that decision. We reverse the summary adjudication of plaintiffs CFRA and public policy claims, however, because there are triable issues of fact as to whether plaintiff submitted material to Continental that constituted a request for CFRA-qualifying leave. Although the forms plaintiff asserts he submitted to Continental were insufficient to put Continental on notice that he was disabled for purposes of FEHA, they could suggest that plaintiff had suffered a…

I concur in the majority’s holding that summary judgment was properly granted on Henry Avila’s California Fair Employment and Housing Act (the FEHA; Gov. Code, § 12900 et seq.) cause of action, but respectfully dissent from reversal of the summary judgment on California’s Moore-Brown-Roberti Family Rights Act (the CFRA; Gov. Code, §§ 12945.2, 19702.3) cause of action. The trial court properly granted summary judgment in favor of defendant and respondent Continental Airlines, Inc., on Avila’s CFRA cause of action because the undisputed facts show that Avila never requested leave from Chelsea Food Services, a division of Continental Airlines, under the CFRA. In addition, the evidence is undisputed that the decision to terminate Avila’s employment was made by managers who had absolutely no knowledge of the hospitalization and who made the decision based upon Avila’s habitual absences.

One need only look to Avila’s unambiguous deposition testimony in order to conclude the trial court properly granted summary judgment on the basis there was never a request for CFRA leave by Avila. The following testimony was given by Avila in his deposition:

As this colloquy makes clear, Avila does…

Plaintiff and appellant Henry Avila (plaintiff) appeals from a summary judgment entered against him on his claims that he was discharged from his employment with Chelsea Food Services (Chelsea), a division of defendant and respondent Continental Airlines, Inc. (Continental), in violation of the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) (Gov. Code, § 12940 et seq.), [1] California's Moore-Brown-Roberti Family Rights Act (§ 12945.2; CFRA), and public policy. We affirm the summary adjudication of plaintiff's FEHA claims because plaintiff failed to raise a triable issue as to whether the Continental employees who made the decision to discharge him knew of his alleged disability at the time they made that decision. We reverse the summary adjudication of plaintiff's CFRA and public policy claims, however, because there are triable issues of fact as to whether plaintiff submitted material to Continental that constituted a request for CFRA-qualifying leave. Although the forms plaintiff asserts he submitted to Continental were insufficient to put Continental on notice that he was disabled for purposes of FEHA, they could suggest that plaintiff had suffered a "serious…