Colcord

Torren Colcord and Stacy Rutherford appeal from a judgment for compensatory and punitive damages in favor of their former employer, Service Employees International Union, Local 250 (Local 250). The trial court found Colcord and Rutherford liable for breach of fiduciary duty for secretly organizing—while still employed as field representatives by the union—a campaign to decertify Local 250 as the collective bargaining agent for Northern California emergency medical technicians.

Defendants contend that the trial court erred in awarding as compensatory damages (1) the cost of Colcord’s Local 250 salary and benefits during the period in which the breaches occurred; and (2) approximately $300,000 in campaign costs Local 250 incurred in its unsuccessful effort to prevent decertification. We affirm the award for salary and benefits paid, but set aside the award of campaign costs because no substantial evidence supports the finding that these were proximately caused by defendants’ tortious conduct. We remand the matter to allow the trial court, if it chooses to, to reconsider the amount of punitive damages awarded against Colcord in light of this court’s partial reversal of the…