Pendar Fazeli v. Bank of America

MEMORANDUM

Pendar Fazeli appeals the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of Bank of America. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and we affirm.

The district court correctly concluded that Fazeli failed to establish a prima facie case of retaliation under California Government Code § 12940(h) because he did not provide adequate probative evidence of a causal link between his termination and his protected activity. See, e.g., Yanowitz v. L’Oreal USA, Inc., 86 Cal.4th 1028 , 32 Cal.Rptr.3d 436 , 116 P.3d 1123, 1130 (2005) (applying the burden-shifting framework from McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 802-05 , 93 S.Ct. 1817 , 36 L.Ed.2d 668 (1973), to retaliation claims brought under Cal. Gov’t Code § 12940(h)). While the time between Fazeli’s protected act and his termination was less than three months, the surrounding circumstances do not suggest a causal link between Fazeli’s filing of a sexual harassment complaint and his termination. See Van Asdale v. Int’l Game Tech., 577 F.3d 989, 1003 (9th Cir.2009) (noting that we have “made clear that ‘a specified time period cannot be a mechanically applied criterion,’ and have cautioned against…