California Public Employees' Retirement System v. Superior Court

After the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (PERS) rendered its adverse findings, senior information systems analyst supervisor Gary Trobee (plaintiff) continued to prosecute his whistleblower claim (Gov. Code, § 8547.3; Lab. Code, § 1102.5) without challenging those findings by mandamus. He contends he has the right to pursue a civil action for damages once the State Personnel Board (SPB) issues or fails to issue findings and his government claim is rejected. The trial court overruled PERS’s demurrer to the first cause of action for retaliation under the California Whistleblower Protection Act (the Whistleblower Act; Gov. Code, § 8547 et seq.) and sustained without leave to amend PERS’s demurrer to the other two causes of action. Plaintiff does not challenge the trial court’s rulings as to the second and third causes of action. We grant PERS’s petition for a peremptory writ of mandate directing respondent superior court to set aside and vacate its order overruling PERS’s demurrer to the first cause of action.

We conclude that (1) because plaintiff was provided the opportunity to submit evidence, name witnesses, and argue his claim, he was provided with the…