Desai

BACKGROUND

In April 2011, 18 former employees of Molina Healthcare, Inc. (Molina) sued Molina and its former chief information officer, appellant and respondent Amir Desai, among others.2 The plaintiffs had previously worked as security analysts and computer programmers in Molina’s information technology department. All were American citizens or green card holders. In their complaint, the plaintiffs alleged that Molina and

Unless otherwise noted, all further statutory references are to the Code of Civil Procedure. This is the third appeal in this case. In the first appeal (B237174), decided in January 2013, we found that the trial court improperly denied a special motion to strike filed by certain plaintiffs (and cross-defendants) against Molina, because Molina failed to submit evidence showing that it had a reasonable probability of prevailing on a cross- complaint it filed. We dismissed the first appeal with respect to Desai because the special motion to strike targeted a nonoperative cross-complaint filed by Desai. In the second appeal (B239941), decided in May 2013, we found that a demurrer was properly sustained in favor of Desai, primarily because plaintiffs’…