Wills

Plaintiff Linda Wills appeals from the judgment entered after the trial court granted a summary judgment motion by defendant Superior Court of the State of California, County of Orange (OC Court). Wills worked for the OC Court until it terminated her employment for violating its written policy against verbal threats, threatening conduct, and violence in the workplace. Wills sued the OC Court, alleging it terminated her for conduct related to her mental disability. Wills argued the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA; Gov. Code, § 12900 et seq.) prohibits an employer from terminating or disciplining an employee for workplace misconduct caused by a disability in the same manner as it prevents an employer from discriminating against an employee for having a disability.

The trial court granted the OC Court’s summary judgment motion on the grounds that (1) Wills failed to exhaust her administrative remedies on the six FEHA causes of action relating to discrimination and harassment she alleged in her operative pleading and (2) Wills’s misconduct provided a legitimate, nondiscriminatory basis for terminating her employment. We agree Wills failed to exhaust her…