Simers

*1250 SUMMARY

In March 2013, plaintiff T.J. Simers was a well-known and sometimes controversial sports columnist for Los Angeles Times Communications, LLC (The Times or defendant). He had held that position since 2000, receiving uniformly favorable and often exceptional performance reviews from defendant. On March 16, 2013, plaintiff, then 62 years old, suffered a neurological event with symptoms similar to a "mini-stroke." He recovered quickly, for the most part, and soon was again writing his thrice-weekly column.

Two and a half months later, The Times reduced plaintiff's columns to two per week, to "give [him] more time to write on [his] columns." His editors expressed the dissatisfaction of upper management with several recent columns, and stated "they had been having problems with [his] writing for the past 18 months." Two weeks later, The Times learned from an article in *1251 another publication that a Hollywood producer (who had just filmed a 90-second video that had "gone viral," in connection with one of plaintiff's columns) was apparently developing a television show loosely based on plaintiff's life. Viewing this as a possible ethical breach, defendant put…