Cordero-Sacks
Cordero-Sacks v. Housing Authority
Opinion
Lead Opinion
Rubin, J.
The Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles appeals from the judgment following a jury trial in favor of its former employee, Ada Cordero-Sacks. We affirm the judgment as modified.
FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS
Applying the usual rules of appellate review, we state the evidence in the light most favorable to the judgment. (Mammoth Lakes Land Acquisition, LLC v. Town of Mammoth Lakes (2010) 191 Cal.App.4th 435, 462-463 [ 120 Cal.Rptr.3d 797 ].) Appellant is the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (the Authority). Respondent is Ada Cordero-Sacks, a licensed attorney hired in October 2006 to work in the Authority’s Office of Internal Control. The Office of Internal Control investigates internal misconduct and fraud within the Authority.
For reasons not pertinent to this appeal, in 2007 the director of the Authority’s technical services department, Victor Taracena, fell under suspicion that he was awarding contracts to unqualified corporations that he had secretly set up with family members. The contracts were for retrofitting public housing to bring the housing into compliance with accessibility laws for the disabled. In May 2007, Rudolf Montiel, who was the…