Williams v. State of California Department of Corrections

MEMORANDUM *

Plaintiff John L. Williams filed this action under Title VII and the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, alleging retaliation by Defendant California Department of Corrections. The district court granted summary judgment for Defendant. Defendant requested attorney fees, and the district court awarded $20,000 in fees under 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(k). Plaintiff appeals the district court’s grant of summary judgment and the award of attorney fees.

On de novo review, Lopez v. Smith, 203 F.3d 1122, 1131 (9th Cir.2000) (en banc), we affirm the district court’s grant of summary judgment. Plaintiff failed to come forward with evidence of a causal link between the protected activity and the adverse employment action. Specifically, there is nothing in the record to contradict the sworn affidavits of Knox, Vidal, or Mihalyi, in which they assert that they were unaware, when they denied his security clearance in 1997, that Plaintiff had filed an EEOC complaint in 1990 or a civil rights action in 1992. Because Plaintiff has failed to demonstrate the existence of a genuine issue of material fact on an element of his prima facie case of retaliation, summary judgment was…