Rochlis

The plaintiff and appellant, Jeffrey A. Rochlis (Rochlis) appeals from a summary judgment entered against him on his four-count first amended complaint. He had sued the defendants and respondents, The Walt Disney Company (Disney), Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI) and Martin A. Sklar (Sklar) (collectively, the defendants) for damages arising out of his employment by Disney and WDI and the subsequent termination of that employment in 1989. Rochlis argues that summary judgment was improper because material issues of fact remain to be resolved with respect to each of his four alleged causes of action.

We conclude that the evidentiary showing made by the defendants demonstrated that they were entitled to judgment, as a matter of law, on each of Rochlis’s claims. We also reject Rochlis’s argument that the trial court improperly shifted to him the burden of providing evidence. We therefore will affirm the judgment.

Factual and Procedural Background

As this matter comes to us as an appeal from a summary judgment, we examine the facts demonstrated by the admissible evidence submitted by the parties. The following recitation of the facts is based upon Rochlis’s own deposition…