Serri

Plaintiff and appellant Conchita Franco Serri brought this action against her former employer (defendant and respondent Santa Clara University (the University)) and other individually named defendants after the University terminated her employment. Serri had worked as the University’s director of affirmative action since 1992. The University terminated her employment in 2007 because she failed to produce affirmative action plans for three consecutive years, even though her job required that she produce an affirmative action plan annually. The University also terminated her employment because she made misrepresentations about the plans that she had failed to prepare.

Notwithstanding Serri’s failure to produce the required plans—and the misrepresentations she made about the nonexistant plans—Serri filed a complaint alleging that she was wrongfully discharged from her employment based on her race and ethnic origin. Her complaint also contained causes of action for breach of her employment contract, retaliation and harassment in violation of the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (Gov. Code, § 12900 et seq.), violation of the federal Equal Pay Act of 1963 ( Pub.L.…