Haligowski

INTRODUCTION

California’s Military and Veterans Code section 394 1 prohibits employers from discriminating against members of the armed forces. In this case of first *986 impression, we are asked to decide whether plaintiffs may hold supervisors personally liable for discrimination under section 394. We conclude that, like the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (the FEHA) (Gov. Code, § 12900 et seq.), another employment discrimination statute which contains similar language and embodies similar goals, section 394 allows servicemen and servicewomen plaintiffs to hold their employers, but not individual employees, liable for discrimination. Accordingly, we grant the writ petition and issue a peremptory writ of mandate.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

For purposes of review, we assume the truth of the following allegations extracted from the complaint (Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. v. Superior Court (2008) 159 Cal.App.4th 381, 385 [ 71 Cal.Rptr.3d 506 ]): While employed by defendant, Safway Services, LLC, 2 plaintiff Lieutenant Mario Pantuso was called to active duty with the Navy. When Pantuso returned from his six-month deployment in Iraq and asked for his job back,…