Fremont Auto. Dealership v. Kim C1/2

BACKGROUND

On June 14, 2011, Fremont Toyota hired Kim as the director of its special finance department. The relationship would prove to be a short one, however, as Kim was terminated from the position a mere four months later.

1 On November 7, three weeks after her termination, Kim filed a claim for unpaid wages with the DLSE. A formal complaint followed on January 3, 2012.1 In the complaint, Kim alleged Fremont Toyota owed her $96,465.92 in unpaid commissions, plus Labor Code section 203 penalties of $1,049.36 per day. It is unclear from the record when Fremont Toyota received notice of Kim’s complaint. After it did so, however, two events apparently occurred. First, Toyota answered Kim’s complaint, denying her allegations and alleging an affirmative defense of unclean hands based on an assertion that Kim improperly reported a customer’s credit history to obtain loan financing and overstated book values, causing losses to the dealership. Second, the DLSE attempted to mediate resolution of Kim’s claim, to no avail. Other than that, for reasons not evident from the record, eight months passed after the filing of Kim’s complaint with apparently no other action. Finally, on August…