Filed 1/5/18 CERTIFIED FOR PUBLICATION

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

SECOND APPEL L LATE DISTRICT

DIVISION EIGHT

T.J. SIMERS

,

Plaintiff and Appellant

,

v.

LOS ANGELES TIMES COMMUNICATIONS, LLC

,

Defendant and Appellant

. B 2 69565

(Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. BC 524471 )

APPEAL from post

judgment orders of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County. William A. MacLaughlin, Judge. Affirmed

. Shegerian & Associates, Carney R. Shegerian and Jill P.
McDonell for Plaintiff and Appellant. Horvitz & Levy, David M. Axelrad, Scott P. Dixler; Davis Wright Tremaine, Emilio G. Gonzalez

, Evelyn F. Wang; Ballard Rosenberg Golper & Sa vitt, Linda Miller Savitt and Elsa
Ba ñ uelos for Defendant and Appellant

.

_________________

_________2 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

e xceptional 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 th rice

- weekly
column.
T wo 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 express ed the dissatisfaction of upper management with several recent columns

, and st ated “they had been having problems with [his] writing for the past 18 months .” Two weeks later, The Times learned from an article in 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 plaintiff’s columns “on holiday” for 10 days, and then, on June 24, 2013, suspended t he column pending an investigation. On August 8, 2013, after completion of the investigation and several meetings with plaintiff, defendant issued a “final written warning” that removed plaintiff from his position as a columnist and made him a senior repo rter, albeit with no reduction in salary “for now.” Plaintiff ’s lawyer informed
defendant on August 12 that plaintiff could not work in that3

environment and considered himself to have been constructively
terminated

. On September 4, 2013, The Times asked plaintiff to return to his position as columnist . But defendant did not answer plaintiff’s questions about how many columns he would write and whether he had to change his interviewing approach, and plaintiff did not trust The Times

. The next day, plaint iff met with editors at the Orange County Register, and by September 9

, 2013, had accepted a position as a columnist there

. On October 15, 2013, plaintiff sued The Times . After a 28

- day trial in the fall of 2015, the jury found in favor of plaintiff on his claims of disability and age discrimination, and on his claim
of constructive termination . The jury awarded plaintiff $2,137,391 in economic damages for harm caused by his constructive termination and $5 million in noneconomic damages.
The parties ag reed to give the jury a special verdict form that
instructed them to fill in the blanks for past and future economic damages only if they found plaintiff was constructively
terminated. The special verdict form allowed the jury to award past and future non economic damages without identifying which noneconomic damages were caused by the constructive termination and which were caused by the disc rimination. The trial court granted defendant’s motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict (JNOV) on plaintif f’s constructive
termination cl aim, and otherwise denied JNOV, finding

s ubstantial evidence supported the verdict on plaintiff’s age and disability discrimination claims. The court also granted defendant’s motion for a new trial on all damages, economic a nd
noneconomic

, finding it was not possible to determine what amount of noneconomic damages the jury awarded because of the4

discrimination but not because of the constructive discharge. The
court denied defendant’s motion for a new trial on plaintiff’s
di scrimination claims. Both parties appealed. We affirm the trial court’s orders.
FACTS
1. The B ackground

a
. Plaintiff’s work at The Times Plaintiff joined The Times as a sports reporter in 1990

. His
editor at the time , Bill Dwyre, called him “the best , toughest reporter I had,” “hard working” and “hig hly ethical,” and in 2000 promoted plaintiff to columnist , a job plaintiff described as “the best job in the country.” Mr. Dwyre picked plaintiff for the job because he “wanted somebody who I knew had gut s and would go after tough subjects and would be a must r ead every day.” The position of columnist was “the most prestigious writing position in the newspaper[.]” Plaintiff wrote three columns each week for
the sports section until the spring of 2013, wh en the events that are the subject of this lawsuit occurred. During his tenure as a sports columnist, plaintiff’s performance reviews were uniformly positive. He often received overall ratings of “exceptional,” and was described as a “brilliant
columnist ” and “unique among U.S . sports columnists.” Mike James became sports editor and plaintiff’s supervisor in 2009. He too described plaintiff in glowing terms as dedicated and talented, with good interviewing skills, and he encouraged plaintiff’s assertiv e and sometimes con frontational style. Plaintiff also worked with younger reporters, “[t]rying to guide them and instill some of the dogged reporting skills that can be important.” Mr. James’s review of plaintiff in February 2013, for the year 2012
, desc ribed plaintiff’s columns as “a must

- read5

element in The Times Sports section”; concluded plaintiff was

“ a very valuable a sset to the department” ; and gave him the highest possible rating in the “reporting and writing” category. On February 1, 2013, the then

- editor of The Times , Davan Maharaj, congratulated plaintiff on “[m]aybe the [b]est interview with [Kobe Bryant] yet. W hat a get. Thanks!”
b. Plaintiff’s freelance work Under the ethics guidelines of The Times , staff members were “free to do outs ide creative, community or personal work, including writing articles and books, giving speeches or appearing on TV or online venues,” but were required to “obtain clearance from a supervisor” before accepting freelance assignments

. While Mr. Dwyre supervi sed plaintiff (through 2005), plaintiff had permission to do a radio show with his daughter five days a week, for two or three years

. Plaintiff appeared on an ESPN television show (Around the Horn) for four or five months in 2003, after being recommended by Mr. Dwyre, and also appeared in a Disney movie. Plaintiff wrote about all
those activiti es in his columns. In 2002 or 2003, plaintiff began writing television scripts, writing and rewriting three or four of them. He told Mr. Dwyre
about the script w riting, and Mr. Dwyre correctly predicted his failure in those endeavors; “[n]one of them ever went anywhere[.]” After Mr. James became sports editor in 2009, plaintiff told
him about the scripts he had been writing and trying to promote, describing his me etings with production companies and “getting excited and then getting let down,” and Mr. James “fou nd it amusing.” Mr. James , who had the authority to ap prove outside work, confirmed that if he knew about a project an employee was6

working on and did not object to it, “that would effectively indicate that you have no objection to it, that you approve i t

– approve of it.” Once an outside project has been approved, it “would not present a problem” if the project occurs “even three years down the line

. . . . ” Mr. James knew that plaintiff had an entertainment agent

, and a script or proposal he was trying to
sell for a television show about plaintiff and his daughter , and
Mr. James saw no conflict of interest or ethical violation in plaintiff’s doing so.
O ver t he years up to March 2013, plaintiff met with “somewhere arou nd a dozen production companies, ” but got no
further unti l he met Mike Tollin (“a b ig time producer”) in August
2 011 (after “a real script writing spurt” that ended in January 2011). ( Plain tiff’s agent, Bill Douglass, had told him to stop writing and instead to “talk ideas” and “come up with an idea that might excite [production companies].” ) Plaintiff pitched the father/daughter concept

, and Mr. Tollin “was excited about the concept.” Mr. Tollin told plaintiff, “Let’s get this going” and “[l]et’s see if we can make this work.” Plaintiff was excited by this development, and on August 18, 2011
, sent an email to a friend saying he had a “deal with Mike Tollin” on a sitcom and “[w]ill let u k now if it re ally goes anywhere.” Two weeks later, he sent another email to a friend saying “by the way, I just sold a sitcom.” (This apparently referred to the idea for a sitcom, and plaintiff never received any money for it. )
Plaintiff and Mr. Tollin tried to involve writer Alan Zweibel in the project, and Mr. Zweibel eventually wrote a treatment in
October 2012. But by July 2012, when Mr. Zweibel cancelled a meeting, plaintiff believed the project was dead, and he never7

saw the October 2012 treatment until discovery in t his lawsuit. The last time plaintiff ever discussed the possibility of a father/daughter television show with Mr. Tollin was “probably
October of 2012.”

c. Plaintiff’s health issues

- March 2013 On March 16, 2013, plaintiff suffere d stroke

- like symptoms and was hospitalized in Phoenix. Doctors told him he had had a “TIA” (trans ient ischemic attack ) or “some sort of mini stroke

, ” and the incident could be a precursor to a full

- blown stroke

. Plaintiff “was having trouble speaking,” a problem “that every once in a while still pops up,” and some difficulty walking. He was “worn out ,” frustrated “because of the speech,” and had
“a headache in the back of my head, which I stil l have to this day.” In the weeks after the incident, his da ughter observed plaintiff as very tired, very sluggish, limping a bit and intermittently “having trouble fi nding the right words.” Despite
this , plaintiff completed a column while in the hospital and wrote another on March 18, 2013.
Plaintiff consulted L os Angeles neurologist Doojin Kim on March 25, April 4, and November 5, 2013. Plaintiff had no symptoms at all on the first visit, and only headache on the
second. ( On November 5, plaintiff “was complaining about concentration difficulties, memory diffic ulties, and executive
functio ning difficulties.”) Dr. Kim told plaintiff it was highly unlikely he had had a TIA, because his symptoms had lasted for
more than 24 hours

. Dr. Kim ordered tests, and told plaintiff he may have suffered small strokes before the M arch 16 incident.
He eventually diagnosed plaintiff with complex migraine syndrome, with symptom s that can mimic a stroke. There is no8

“absolute cure,” but the symptoms can be elimina ted with
medication. Plaintiff’s neurologic event and its effects in the ensuing
weeks were known to The Times , and were met with statements of concern and support. (Plaintiff wrote a column about his “mini stroke[]” and “TIA,” mentioning problems with his typing and speech, on March 18. A column on March 26 again dis cussed his
“mini

- stroke or whatever it was

. . . . ” ) Mr. James reported plaintiff’s hospi talization to Marc Duvoisin, the managing editor, and Mr. Duvoisin emailed plaintiff, saying he knew about TIA ’ s and was very concerned; he encouraged plaintiff “to t ake as much time off as you need, and please let me know what, if anything, the paper can do to help,” and “[y]our column will be waiting for

you as soon as y ou feel up to it.” Mr. Duvoisin in turn conveyed the information about plaintiff’s “micro

- stro ke” to Mr. Maharaj, who promptly emailed plaintiff. Mr. Maharaj wrote that he had just read plaintiff’s March 18 column “which was a hoot,” and “we are SOOO fortunate to get through th is with you intact.” After his hospitalization, plaintiff told Mr. James t hat he had to cancel an interview he had arranged with boxer Floyd Mayweather, because he (plaintiff) “was out of it. . . . I was exhausted. My b rain was scrambled.” About two weeks after the incident, on April 2, 2013,
Mr. James emailed plaintiff, expr essing the hope that “everything went well in the tests” and suggesting a column topic, “[a]ssuming you’re off the DL [ ( disabled list ) ] and still plan
to write

. . . . ” The next day, Mr. James emailed plaintiff to say “This is just a great column. No one has written anything like this. Really good

. . . . ”9 On April 4, 2013, Mr. Duvoisin wrote to plaintiff, saying plaintiff’s column was “as vigorous and delightful as ever, but I hear you’re still plagued by headaches. Please know that you
have our full s upport to take as much time as you need to rest and recuperate. Everything

. . . will be waiting for you on your return. We need another 20 years of columns out of you before you hang it up, so take whatever time you nee d to feel better.” ( Mr. Duvoisin knew from Mr. James that plaintiff was complaining of headaches. )
2. Events A fter Plaintiff’s March 16 H ospitalization In April and May, plaintiff “didn’t know if [he] could get on a plane and have the energy to complete [an] assignment,” and “articulated some of this to Mike James,” telling Mr. James that he was “just trying to prove to myself that I can do this, but I
be lieve I can.” He was “just tired,” and “[f]ocus and concentration

w ere very difficult.” He had “a constant headache in the back of [hi s] head that still to this day I have

. . . . ” “I’m always dealing with the headache in the back of my head, and I’ve let the people at the paper know that I had the headache. [¶] I wasn’t asking for any special consideration. I just wanted them to kno w how I

was , what I was doing.” Nonetheless, plaintiff continued to produce columns of the same quality as he had done before his hospitalization.
Mr. James did not see any change in plaintiff’s work product or in
his dedication to his wor k quality after the March 16 incident (and as already noted, Messrs. James, Duvoisin and Maharaj all complimente d him on his work). He “landed two very big
interviews” that occurred in April and May 2013, one of them, set for May 30, 2013, with basketball player Dwight Howard (more
about this below).10 Then, at the end of May, Mr. Duvoisin and Mr. Maharaj began to express some displeasure with plaintiff.

a. May 28, 2013
On May 28, 2013, Mr. James and assistant sports editor
John Cherwa met with plaintiff and conveyed a d ecision by managing editor Duvoisin that plaintiff would write two columns per week rather than three , a decision that upset plaintiff

. The genesis of the column reduction, according to
Mr. Duvoisin, was “a string of columns” plaintiff wrote in late Apri l and May. First, t here was a series of columns written in Memphis in late April, in which plaintiff referred to Memphis as “Rathole,” Tennessee. Mr. Duvoisin “did not like that” and “thought that was inappropriate.” (But sports columnists had been usi ng derogatory terms for other cities for many years, and plaintiff
had done so numerous times without repr imand. And plaintiff’s column was required to be approved by one of the sports editors before publication, and the “Rathole” reference remained

untou ched.) Second, Mr. Duvoisin was “troubled” by a column on May 11, 2013 about the n Angels baseball team owner Arte Moreno, thinking the column was “needlessly harsh and unfa ir to” Mr. Moreno. (Plaintiff wrote that the players were “very
much like their ow ner, and as they say, the fish st inks from the head down.”)
Third , Mr. Duvoisin was similarly troubled by plaintiff’s
column about Mark McGwire , then the Dodgers hitting coach, on May 15, 2013. Plaintiff (according to his column) asked
Mr. McGwire, who h ad a history of steroid use, “Is it time to introduce the players to steroids?” and “asked if he could still11

sco re some steroids.” Mr. Duvoisin thought the column was “needlessly caustic and harsh and wasn’t funny” and “wasn’t
fair.” At the May 28 meeting

, Mr. James conveyed several
criticisms from Mr. Duvoisin and Mr. Maharaj , in addition to the issues with the three columns just described : they thought plaintiff’s writing “had become sloppy” and they had been “having problems with [plaintiff’s] writing for the past 18 months” ; they “questioned his interviewing abilities” based on an interview he
had done with Jim Mora in November 2012

, at which plaintiff’s behavior “reflected poorly on the paper” and was a “public
embarrassment” to The Times ; and “they h ad problems with stories filed right on deadline.” (Th is last problem had never been documented at any time during plaintiff’s 22 years with
The Times

. Mr. James testified that plaintiff met his deadlines, and John Cherwa, who had been deputy sports edit or since 2009, testified that he “never had a problem with [plaintiff] filing his stories, his columns on time,” and he was “very vigilant on fil ing on time.”)
Mr. James told plaintiff he was “just delivering the message” about the column reduction ; he to ld plaintiff it wa s not his decision. The removal of the third column “was not something that I would have suggested,” and he “didn’t know
what i t would achieve[.]” (Mr. Duvoisin claimed the column
redu ction was a suggestion by Mr . Jame s and assistant sp orts editors Cherwa and Hiserman to resolve the problems
Mr. Duvoisin had with the three columns; “their opinion was

. . . that [plaintiff] had trouble hitting the same standard with the
third column as he had wit h the other two.”) Mr. James had
never bef

ore documented plaintiff ’s writing as “ sloppy, ” or told12

plaintiff he was a “public embarrassment” to The Times , and he
knew of no occasion on which plaintiff’s columns had ever be en suspended.
Mr. James could not recall ever criticizing plaintiff about

t he November 2012 Mora interview

. Mr. James had been “a little concerned about it but not to the point that I thought it was a serious p roblem.” (This in terview with Mr. Mora (at a post game press conference) had occurred six months earlier, and there was no criticism from upper management at the time. ) The interview
had be en videotaped and posted on You Tube . In his column, and during the press conference , plaintiff expressed disbelief in various statements made by Mr. Mora (whom plaintiff had
known for 2 5 years), and suggest ed Mr. Mora had intentionally
held his UCLA team back, losing the game so the team would
face Stanford instead of a better team in the upcoming championshi p game. Mr. James thought some of plaintiff’s comments were “on the edge” in te rms of a respectful
inte rviewing technique, and plaintiff admitted in a column he wrote two days later that one of his co mments was “[w]ay out of
line.” A t the time of the May 28 meeting, Mr. James knew plaintiff had a longstanding, good relationship with Mr. Mora, who had just invited plaintiff to play in a charity golf

tournament. Mr. James told plaintiff “that he agreed with 85 percent of
the work [plaintiff] was doing, but there was 15 percent that he agreed with upper management.” And Mr. James “did not have a serious problem with [the three articles],” which were approved by his department before t hey were published.13 Plaintiff, who took pride in his columns, was very upset
about the column reduction, and received permission from
Mr. Ja mes to meet w ith Mr. Duvoisin.
b. May 29, 2013
Plaintiff and Mr. Duvoisin met the following day. Plaintiff
told Mr. Duvoisin “how blindsided [he] was,” and that he “didn’t
understand where it was coming from.” Plaintiff explained “how passionate [he was ] about newsp apering[.]” They discussed the Mora interview, and Mr. Duvoisin conceded he might be “going
overboard on

. . . that criticism” and that perhaps it was not fair

“ ‘to pick o ut one interview.’ ” Mr. Duvoisin “made it clear

. . . he wasn’t a fan of my writi ng for the past year,” and “he just told me it wasn’t up to L.A. Times standar d.” They discussed the three
columns and Mr. Duvoisin’s criticisms (for example, as to the McGwire column, “ ‘We just don’t do that at The Times . We shouldn’t be doing that at The Times ’ ” ). Mr. Duvoisin also brought up the subject of plaintiff’s health, urging him “to get physically right.” Plaintiff said
Mr. Duvoisin “was very nice about it,” saying plaintiff should

“ ‘take as much time off as you like [ without ] counting it a s vacation,’ ” but “it’s a weird thing when someone’s being nice to you but you’re not exactly sure they are being nice to you when they say, ‘get physically right.’ ” Plaintiff questioned “[t]he notion
that I wasn’ t physically right.” When the meeting co ncluded, Mr. Duvoisin said that they should continue the conversation when plaintiff returned from a planned trip. Plaintiff “felt invigorated” and that “maybe there was a chance that I had made some points about the interviewing process and

. . . that he might reconsider [the column reduction] .”14 c. May 30, 2013

- the Dwight Howard
i nterview and videotaping On May 22, 2013, plaintiff told Mr. James that he had
obtained an exclusive interview with basketball star Dwight Howard, and that plaintiff’s daughte r “ [would] be showing [Mr. Howard] how to shoot free throws

. . . we’re work ing on dates
now.” (Mr. Howard “wasn’t great at fre e throw shooting,” and Mr. James thought it was a “fun idea” to have plaintiff’s daughter (who had been a successful high school basketball player) shooting free throws as a part of the interview process. )
Mr. James said that obtaining the Howard interview was “huge,” and was “access that is bey ond the norm.” After the interview was arranged, plaintiff saw Mr. Tollin (the Hollywo od producer) on television at a Dodgers game, and sent him a text message telling him his plans for the Howard
interview. Mr. Tollin contacted plaintiff the next day. Mr. Tollin told plaintiff he had a new website that produced 90

- second vignettes on spo rts figures, and suggested videotaping plaintiff’s daughter teaching Mr . Howard how to shoot free throws. (On the day of the interview, this was changed to a free

- thro w competition.) At the time (May 2013), plaintiff “had no business relationship with Mi ke Tollin

, ” and “no development T.V. show at
that time.” Plaintiff told Mr. James that Mr. Tollin was a “high

powered producer” who had done work for ESPN, had done documentaries, had his own production company, Mandalay Media Sports, and wanted to promot e the Mandalay Media
websi te. Mr. James approved the videotaping by Mr. Tollin and his production company. ( The videotaping idea and Mr. James’s approval occurred on May 29, 2013, the day before the interview.15

The Times ’s own videography department was “spread thin” and Mr. James planned to send a p hotographer.) The plan was that the video could run both on the Mandalay website and on The
Times ’s site. Mr. James talked to Mr. Maharaj before the videotaping and “told him exactly what was going to happen ,”
and Mr. M aharaj approved it. During the videotaping, a Times photographer and (unexpectedly) a Times videographer arrived at the interview site, but arrived late, after the proceedings were underway. They thought the proceedings were being scripted or staged, and expressed their concerns to the deputy managing editor in charge of visual journalism, Colin Cra wford. Mr. Crawford thought
Mr. James should not have approved the videotaping by
Mr. T ollin

. Ultimately, Mr. Maharaj, Mr. C rawford and others
de cided not to run the video on The Times ’s website, but instead to run a link from plaintiff’s column to the Mandalay Media
website. About an hour after the link was posted on The Times ’s website, Mr. Maharaj ordered Mr. Crawford to rem ove the link.
Mr. M aharaj was “troubled by it” and said it was “basically like a promotional piece and he wasn’t at all comf ortable with it.”
Mr. Maharaj expressed concerns to Mr. James about plaintiff’s daughter being in the video ( Mr. Maharaj had told plaintiff in Septemb er 2012 that family photos should not accompany columns in The Times ), and about plaintiff wearing a cap (that he always wore) showing the name of plaintiff’s favorite cha rity for
children. Mr. James’s opinion was that “it was an entertaining video
and th at it was okay to ha ve up on the site.” Plaintiff expressed
his concern to Mr. James that The Times was not “following16

through on an agreement we had [with Mandalay Media], and it made us look bad,” and Mr. James admitted that “we did not follow through o n t he agreement.”
d. The June 2, 2013 column Plaintiff’s column about Dwight Howard was published on June 2, 2013. The day before, plaintiff sent Mr. Tollin a copy of the column, asking him if there were “any problems” with it. According to Mr. James, t hat was “not something we do,” because “you’re giving a source the opportunity to effect change in something that you’re writing that may be nefit that source.” The
column made no mentio n of the video. Mr. James was “very positive about the content [plain tiff] obtained,” and “thought it was a column that would be highly read.” The column was longer than guidelines normally permitted, but was published “as it is” because “of the content
that [plaintiff] had gotten

. . . . ”

e. The June 10, 2013 Sports Busi ness Journal article On June 10, 2013, the Sports Business Journal ( SBJ )

p ublished an article about Mandalay Media. The article stated

, in relevant part :

“Mandalay S ports Media is developing a TV comedy
ba sed on the life of acerbic Los A ngeles Times spor ts columnist T.J. Simers, one of several projects the 15

- month

- old sports production company has in the pipeline. “Formed last March by Warriors co

- owner Peter
Guber and Hollywood producer/director Mike Tollin, Mandalay plans to pitch the Simers show to br oadcast networks in the coming months.17 “ ‘The series is about an old

- school reporter in a medium that is quickly evaporating and a daughter who is a participant in the new media,’ Tollin said. ‘Ultimately, it will be a comedy focused on their relationship and the relationship they never had because he was al ways on the
road and was kind of an absentee dad. He’s kind of trying

to make up for lost time. She’s trying to teach the old dog
new tricks.’ “Mandalay has not made casting decisions for the show yet

– neither Simers nor his daughter will star in it. “But Simers and his daughter played a starring role in a viral video Mandalay produced last month with Lakers
All

- Star center Dwight Howard. The video, of Simers’ daughter beating Howard in a free throw shooting contest, was picked up by some of the most popular sports and entertainment websites, garnering more than 250,000 views.

“

. . . Carrying no advertising or sponsorships, the
three

- minute video did not make money for Mandalay Sports Media. But Toll in believes it helped create buzz, not only around the show but also around Mandalay’s YouTube channel, which it launched last month. “ ‘You’ll never know if the viral video will help the series get off the ground. But we know that it won’t hurt,’
Tollin said.”
f. Developments after the SBJ article The next day (June 11, 2013), plaintiff learned about the SBJ article in a text from “[s]omeone telling me that I had a T.V. show with Mandalay Sports Me dia.” Plaintiff “texted Mike Tollin, and I said, ‘I hear I have a T.V. show,’ and I think I used18

seven question marks.” Mr. Tollin called plaintiff later in the day, saying “no, it was just a story that I was hyping and

. . . that was the angle [th e reporter] took.” Mr. Tollin forwarded plaintiff
the SBJ arti cle that day, but plaintiff did not read it. On the same day, June 11, plaintiff replied to Mr. Tollin’s email forwarding the SBJ article, saying it had given him an
idea. Plaintiff then suggested and described “a weekly bit on your new web site” involvi ng “athletes who made an impression
on folks

. . . but left tough questions unanswered,” concluding with “of course this would mean me quitting my job, but that’s talk for another day

. . . .” On June 13, 2013, The Times ’s editors saw the SBJ article.
Jo hn Cherwa showed it to Mr. James, who brought it to
Mr

. Duvois in and Mr. Maharaj. Mr. James was “very concerned,” because “if this is true, then I felt I had been denied information I needed to know before making the decision on having the video
shot.” M r. James thought it “was potentially a serious issue,” because “it’s a real conflict of interest to use any material that is in the paper or on our website as a vehicle to promote an outside operation that would benefit the

. . . creator of the article.”
Mr. James “thought my superiors needed to see it from me before they saw it from someplace else.”
Mr. Duvoisin was likewise concerned “because the article
stated that the video

. . . was intended to promote a T.V. show that [plaintiff] was developing on t he side with

. . . Mike Tollin,” and “that was not what [Mr. James] understood when he approved the video to be shot

. . . .” Mr. Duvoisin and
Mr. Maharaj decided that “we would need to look into this and
find out what was going on.”19 g

. The June 14 , 2 013 column suspension The next day, Mr. Duvoisin emailed plaintiff, telling him to “put your column on holi day for 10 days.” Plaintiff and
Mr. Duvoisin then spoke by telephone, and Mr. Duvoisin “essentially repeated himself, take the next 10 days off, ve ry casually.” He did not explain why the column was being suspended. Mr. Duvoisin told plaintiff he “did not want to get into it with [plaintiff] that night,” a Friday, because both of them were leaving on trips the following morning, and they would talk when they were both back in the office, on Monday June 24. (Plaintiff went to Wisconsin to visit friends, returning shortly
before the June 24 meeting.)
h. The June 24, 2013 meeting On June 24, plaintiff met with Mr . Duvoisin and
Mr. Maharaj. Mr. Mahar aj told plaintiff that “ ‘we’re here to find out about your business relationship with Mandalay Sports Media, with your T.V. show, and with your efforts to promote your T.V. show on our internet site.’ ” Plaintiff told them he had
no T.V. show and no busi ness relationship with Mandalay Sports Media. He was “dumfounded.” He had not read the SBJ article; he “didn’t need to read it” once Mr. Tollin told him that there was
no T.V. show. Plaintiff told Messrs. Duvoisin and Maharaj “that
I had tried to do a T .V. show. I had tried to write lots of scripts, sell T.V. shows over the years, get a show off the ground. I worked with Mr. Tollin,

. . . but I said that deal fell apart and died, had gotten nowhere, and all my efforts were now scrap paper.” They showe d him the SBJ article and he started to read
it , but then laughed and said, “this is farcical,” meaning “there just was no truth to it as fa r as what I knew.”20 Mr. Maharaj told plaintiff he “would be internally investigated into my business relationship w ith Mandalay Sports Media, my T.V. show

, ” and plaintiff was outraged, telling the editors “there is no T.V. show.” Mr. Maharaj told him, “ ‘ We do

no t want to hear your side at this time.’ ” T hey “indicated to me that there was going to be an internal inv estigation conducted by the business editor, who I didn’t know, and the photo editor, who
I had never met.” Plaintiff continued to explain about his script writing, his agent, and that “everyone in the sports department knows I’ve
done this for a n umber [o f] years.” Mr. Duvoisin “interrupted to say that I had violated the ethics guideline, because “ ‘you didn’t have permission to pitch these ideas f or outside work.’ ” Plaintiff again explained that Mr. James and before him Mr. Dwyre were “always aware of what I’ d been doing.” He told them “that I had a previous relationship with Mike Tollin as well as other producers, but at the time of the video I had no relationship with him, no connection, no business, nothing going on” ; “to suggest
that we had a relat ionship because we were doing a T.V. project,
is completely false.” (Mr. Duvoisin later testified that plaintiff told them “that he had worked with Mr. Tollin a while back” on a father/daughter sitcom, but that “the project went nowhere[.]”) The meeting concluded with plaintiff being told that his column was on suspension and “the investigators wi ll be in touch[.]”
3

. The I nvestigation : June 24

– August 7 , 2013 Mr. Maharaj tasked business editor Marla Dickerson and Mr. Crawford with conducting the inve stigation. Mr. Crawford said their job was to “get the facts” about “whether there was a tie between” the video shoot (which Mr. Crawford believed was21

“a staged production shoot”) and the SBJ article “that said basically that shoot was to promote a show t hat w as in the
works.” Ms. Dickerson ’s job was to interview the people involved and Mr. Crawford’s job was to “look at e

- mails” and “see if there
was a trail or correlation between the two.” Ms. Dickerson interviewed plaintiff , Mr. James, Wally Skajit a nd Bethany Mollenkoff ( The Times ’s photographer and videographer, respectively), and Mr. Tollin. (When Mr. Tollin received a message on July 2, 2013, that Ms. Dickerson had
called him about the video and The Times ’s concerns about “how it came about, etc. ,” Mr. Tollin emailed plaintiff, asking “do you want to talk before I call her back?” Plaintiff responded, “Yes

– good idea.” ) On July 10, 2013, Ms. Dickerson emailed a summary of her findings to Mr. Maharaj

. ( The summary was prepared without
reviewin g any emails, which Mr. Crawf ord was handling.) The Dickerson report concluded: “My interviews with [plaintiff] and others involved in the Dwight Howard video have turned up no
evidence of serious breaches of The Times Ethics Guidelines by [plaintiff]

. The actions of Mandalay Sports Media are another story, but those folks aren ’t on our payroll.” On the issue of “[o]utside work” and the SBJ article, the Dickerson report stated its “[k]ey findings: [Plaintiff] denied that any TV show is in the works and said the first he heard of it was when a couple of colleagues emailed him about the art icle. He
said he and Tollin had some casual conversations about a father

daughter story ‘a couple of years ago’ but that nothing ever came
of it. He said he was ‘as d umbfounded as anyone’ to hear about the article. ‘There is no TV show,’ [plaintiff] said. ‘There is no agreement to do one. There is no money that has exchanged22

hands.’ [¶] [Plaintiff] emailed me the photo of a text that he sent
to Tollin on 6/11 aski ng what the heck was going on (it had 7 questions marks in it). [Plaintiff] said he concluded that Tollin ‘embellished’ the whole thing

– a case of a Hollywood guy trying to puff himself up. [¶] That ’s pretty much the version Tollin gave, except that To llin said the last time he and [plaintiff] had talked informally about a potential project may have been 2012.
He said there was nothing to the S [ B ] J story, and characterized the whole thing as a misunderstanding.

. . . ” Ms. Dickerson’s “[f]inal though ts” were that “Tollin has a pretty casual relationship with the truth, no question. But in the case of [plaintiff], until we find evidence to the contrary, we’re obligated to tak e him at his word.” Mr. Duvoisin knew, from Ms. Dickerson’s interview notes

, that Mr. James told her that “[plaintiff] has tried to pitch this before [TV and movie projects]. This is something he’s been trying to do for a long time. I never saw an issue. We allowed him to do that. We never stopped him from doing that.

. . . Three to four times he mentioned it. He was trying to get one done without any success.” As for the last time Mr. James remembered plaintiff talking about any project, Mr. James said, “As far as I know, a couple of years. It’s not something that has
bee n a continual topic. But it is a long

- standing thi ng.” Paula Markgraf, then the director of human resources for
The Times

, was “pulled [in to] participate in” the investigation

, specifically “to pull e

- mails, ” on June 26. She did not have access
to the email servers, and contacted the IT department in late
June 2013 to download emails involving plaintiff

. She received
the emails on July 9, performed various searches , and reviewed and printed out “a rather thick set of e

- mails” that she passe d to23

Mr. Cra wford on July 12. He in turn passed them to Mr. Duvoisin. Mr. Duvoisin reviewed the emails and created a
six

- page summary of “what we had found by reviewing the e

mails and

. . . what the issues were that they raised,” and to “identify the things we want ed to ask [ plaintiff] about.” The emails revealed plaintiff’s activities in 2011 and 2012 that we have described in part 1. b., ante . They also showed that plaintiff had written a column in May 2012 about a Norwegian Olympian about whom Mr. Tollin produce d a documentary that
was to air on ESPN; plaintiff sent a copy of the column to
Mr. Tollin for his review before publication, and made two “rather innocuous changes” Mr. Tollin suggested before submitting the column for publication. Then, Mr. Duvoisin’s

s ummary states, there was “a big gap” in “the email trail” until the Howard interview arrangements and ensuing video

controve rsy in May 2013. Mr. Duvoisin later testified there were no email communications in 2013 suggesting that plaintiff had sold a show, was getting money, had “discussed this project,” or that “suggested he was trying to do this video to help this project.” (Plaintiff testified he had not spoken to Mr. Tollin about
a televi sion show in 2013, and t he record shows only one email exchange wi th Mr. Tollin in 2013 before the Howard video matter, and that had nothing to do with a television show. ) Mr. Duvoisin concluded that plaintiff had been “untruthful
with us about several things,” including statements that
Mr. Tollin was “an old friend, an d they’d talked casua lly about a TV project long ago ” ( plaintiff had met Mr. Tollin two years ago and the work they did was “very serious” ). Mr. Duvoisin also doubted plaintiff’s claim that he had not read the SBJ article, and observed that plaintiff and Mr. Tollin “appeared to have24

coordinated their story” that the article was erroneous. Nor did plaintiff tell his editors about his June 11 pitch to Mr. Tollin about a weekly webcast “just weeks ago.” Mr. Duvoisin concluded plaintiff violated The Times ’s newsroom ethics guidelines by “show[ing] stories to interested outside parties before publication”; by pitching the weekly webcast to an outside party without his editors’ approval or knowledge; and, if he had “sold” a sitcom in 2011, he did not disclose t he outside inc ome as required. Mr. Duvoisin proposed a number of questions to ask plaintiff and others. Meanwhile, on July 12, 2013, plaintiff wrote to
Mr. Maharaj about The Times ’s “disregard for the stress, impact on my health and potential damage to m y reputation.” Plaintiff said he did not understand “the delay in this process, which heightens my suspicion something else is at work here.” Plaintiff
stated he was leaving on a vacation the following day and would return on July 24 , and asked that matt ers be resolved at that
time. When plaintiff returned, a meeting was set for July 25, 2013, and plaintiff was told “a human resources person would be attending the meeting.” He “cleaned out [his] desk, anticipating”
a termination. He then met with Mr. Ma haraj and Mr. Duvoisin, who told him the investigation was still ongoing, and set a meeting for July 30, 2013. At the July 30 meeting, Ms. Markgraf was also present, and the three of them questioned plaintiff. Mr. Duvoisin suggested p laintiff had not been truthful. Plaintiff said “they couldn’t get it through their heads that when I said, ‘there is no script,’ I was referring directly to the accusation that there was a T.V. show, a business relationship with Mandalay Sports Media.”25 On July 31, 2013, Ms. Markgraf emailed Mr. Maharaj, urging a final decision as soon as possible, saying: “[Plaintiff] made a good case for this dragging out as well as causing stress and harm to his reputation. I have seen many emails in his inbox asking what is happening fro m the public, including questions whether he is being fi red.”
Messrs. Duvoisin and Mahar aj and Ms. Markgraf met again with plaintiff on August 7, 2013, to discuss “discrepancies” and “to ask more quest ions about them.” They showed plaintiff
about a dozen emails and the January 2011 script, and “they were trying to link this 2011 script to 2013, the Dwight Howard
video

. . . . ” Mr. Maharaj told plaintiff, “ ‘I’ve l ost trust in you.’ ”
Plaintiff told Mr. Maharaj that he had done nothing to merit that
kind of comment, and he “was losing trust in them as my superiors[.]” It “clearly appeared to [plaintiff] that they were operating off of some plan because it didn’t matter what I said.”
Ms. Markgraf said, “ ‘These two gentlemen will have to figure out your f ate. One of the possibilities is termination.” Plaintiff “was numb at that point.”
4. The August 8, 2013 D emotion The four met again the following day, August 8, and on the same day plaintiff received a “ f inal w ritten w arning

. ” Plaintiff was told, both orally and then in writing, that “[e]ffectively [ sic ] immediately, you are no longer a columnist. After your pending vacation, you will be a Reporter II on the sports staff. There will be no reduction in your salary at this time.” 1

1 Mr. Duvoisin testified that “Reporter II is a senior reporter at the L.A. Times. It is the job in which most of our most experienced staff hold that rank of Reporter II including

. . . maybe six Pulitzer Prize

- winning reporters. [ I]t would be one of26 At the meeting

, Mr. Duvoisin told plaintiff he “had broken the ethics code for not having permission to shop different projects around or

. . . get involved in outside activities” and “for passing columns”; that he had “lost the trust of the editors” and
“had

. . . not been f

orthcoming in answering questions”; and “mentioned again the notion of a public embarrassment to the
L.A. Times.” The written warning also stated that “[n]ot reporting the outside activities during the 2010, 2011 and 2012
annual review of the Tribune Busi ness Code of Conduct is also a violation of company policy.” The only mention of the Dwight Howard video was this: “Before any of the issues arose that led to an investigation of your activities, we had been concerned about the quality and tone of your c olumn and about your public behavior. As you recall, we met separately with you and your editors on several occasions in May 2013 to discuss our concerns

– well before the Dwight Howard video surfaced.”
5. Post

- demotion D evelopments After the August 8, 2 013 meeting, plaintiff did not return to
work. About a week after the meeting, The Times received a letter from plaintiff’s lawyer stating that plaintiff believed he had been constructively discharged. “[R]elatively soon” after that, the
then

- publisher a nd chief executive officer of The Times

, Eddy Hartenstein, asked Mr. Duvoisin and Mr. Maharaj to reconsider whether plaintiff could resume his column. They did so, and met with plaintiff on September 4, 2013, telling him “they wanted [him] back.” But whe n he asked how many columns he would write and whether he had to change his interviewing approach, they told him they would discuss that when he returned. He

the most sought after positions you could have to be a senior reporter on the staff of the L.A. Times.”27

questioned their motives and did not trust them. A proposed contract “demand [ ed ] that I admit to wrongdoing” and was a
“one

- year

. . . guaranteed contract” and “after the first three months, they could get rid of me

. . . for no cause” but with the obligation to pay him for the rest of the year. (This proposed contract is not in evidence.)
Th e next day, plaintiff met with editors at the Orange County Register, and by September 9, 2013, had accepted a position as a columnist there. The Register later experienced financial problems, and in June 2014 plaintiff accepted a buyout (three months’ severance pay in exchange for resignation) that the Register offered to its staff in advance of preparation of a layoff list.
6. The L awsuit Plaintiff filed this lawsuit on October 15, 2013. In addition to the facts recited above, the evidence adduced during the 28

- day trial included the following points.

a. Discrimination/pretext issues Mr. James testified that plaintiff’s “sense of journalistic ethics has been strong throughout” his career, and Mr. Dwyre, who was plaintiff’s supervisor for many years and after t hat a fellow columnist, testified that the incident in June 2013 “was the first time that there was any ethical question about” plaintiff. Kelly Bassin (formerly Kelly Burgess), who worked at The
Times from 1983 until March 2012 and was Mr. James’s
assis tant from July 2009 until she left, testified about the layoffs she witnessed in the five years before she left (30 to
40 employees) . She noticed that “they seemed to be targeting and focusing on older, more long

- term coworkers of mine, people who
had bee n there for some time and were likely higher salaried28

employees.” Mr. James “confided in [her] that he was specifically told to target certain people, the older, higher salaried employees.”
Mark Heisler was a columnist for The Times from 1991 to 2011, wh en he was involuntarily laid off at the age of 67. One of the reasons cited by Mr. Cherwa for Mr. Heisler’s termination was that “we could maybe save another job. We could save someone who wasn’t, you know,

. . . in that near retirem ent position.” (Mr. Cherwa asserted that Mr. Heisler “had already said he planned to retire

. . . . ” At the time of trial, Mr. Heisler was a freelance correspondent with L.A. News Group and a freelance blogger for Forbes.com.) After plaintiff left, Mr. James planned to requ est two new hires. Mr. James wanted to hire Steve Dilbeck, a versatile and solid writer, 61 years old, who was “very

. . . p lugged in to the sports scene in Los Angeles

, ” for one of the positions, and the other would be “someone younger.” Mr. James told Mr. Dilbeck that “the average age of our staff is 53,” and “we have to get younger.” Mr. Maharaj and Mr. Duvoisin made the ultimate hiring decisions. T wo men, one in his 20 ’ s and one in his 20 ’ s or 30 ’ s , were hired

. One of them came in at a “fairly high salary,” but “less than half” of plaintiff’s salary.
Plaintiff testified that many of the employees “being asked to leave” during the preceding five years “were close to my age,”
so “I was aware that an older crowd

. . . was being shown the door.”
b. Da mages issues Plaintiff presented extensive evidence of his emotional
distress and worry about damage to his reputation during the investigation. He conveyed this to Mr. Maharaj as early as29

July 2, saying he was forced to avoid readers, friends and
associa tes during the wait and there was already a rumor he was leaving the paper. He did so again on July 12, telling
Mr. Maharaj he was “dumbfounded by the disregard for the stress, impact on my health and potential damage to my reputation” in the month since he had been told to stop writing. In addition to his own testimony , his wife and daughter testified about plaintiff’s stress, confusion, irritability and reclusiveness during the column suspension , and his depression
and withdrawal after the loss of his c olumn. The defense’s forensic psychologist (Dr. Francine Kulick) testified plaintiff developed “an adjustment disorder with features of anxiety and depression at t he end of May 2013,” and diagnosed plaintiff with major depressive disorder in the severe ra nge as of October 2014

. She testified plaintiff “had an emotional reaction to the loss of prestige and recognition due to his decision to no longer work at the L.A. Times[.]” Plaintiff’s expert psychiatrist, Dr. Warren
Procci

, also presented testimony on this subject (including that plaintiff “certainly was already experiencing a very good deal of depression at the time that he quit. Now, it may be the case that the fact of quitting

. . . did contribute to the depression worsening”).
We will discuss this and other evidence on noneconomic damages as necessary in connection with the legal issues on appeal.

c
. The special verdic t and post judgment orders The jury found in favor of plaintiff on his claims of disability and age discrimination, and on his claim of constructive
termination . The jury was directed to award past and future economic damages only if it found plaintiff was constructively30

terminated

. The jury awarded past economic damages of $330,358 and future economic damages of $1,807,033. The jur y found past noneconomic loss of $2,500,000 and future noneconomic loss of $2,500,000. The jury found that plaintiff did not prove by clear and convincing evidence that The Times acted with malice, oppression or fraud. Judgment was entered on November 5 , 2015. Defendant
filed motions for JNOV and for a new trial.
T he trial court granted defendant’s motion for JNOV on the
claim for constructive termination and denied the JNOV motion
on the claims for age and disability discrimination

. The court also g ranted defendant’s motion for a new trial “on the claim for constructive discharge (termination) and all damages , economic and noneconomic, assessed and based on that claim.” The court denied the new trial motion as to the age and disability discriminatio n causes of action, stating that the

“ motion for a new trial is denied on all grounds other than the ground of the insufficiency of the evidence to sustain a claim of constructive discharge and the award of damages, economic and noneconomic, addres sed in t his ruling.”
Plaintiff appealed from the posttrial orders granting in part defendant’s JNOV and new trial motions. Defendant appealed from the order s denying i n part defendant’s JNOV and
new trial motion s

. DISCUSSION
1. Plaintiff’s Appeal

a. The JNOV r u ling on c onstructive d ischarge
i

. The standard of review

“ A motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict may be granted only if it appears from the evidence, viewed in the light31

most favorable to the party securing the verdict, that there is no
substant ial evidence in support. ” ( Sweatman v. Department of Veterans Affairs (2001) 25 Cal. 4th 62, 68 .) On appeal, “ the standard of review is whether any substantial evidence

-- contradicted or uncontradicted

-- supports the jury ’s conclusion. ” ( Ibid. )
ii. Th e law on constructive discharge

“ Constructive dis charge occurs when the employer’ s conduct effectively forces an employee to resign. Although the employee may say ‘ I quit, ’ the employment relationship is actually severe d involuntarily by the employer’ s acts, a gainst t he employee’ s will. As a result, a constructive discharge is legally regarded as a firing rather than a resignation. ” ( Turner v.
Anheuser

- Busch, Inc. (1994) 7 Cal. 4th 1238, 1244

- 1245 ( Turner ).) To establish a constructive discharge, an employee m ust prove “ that the employer either intentionally created or knowingly permitted working conditions that were so intolerable or aggravated at the time of the employee ’ s resignation that a reasonable employer would realize that a re asonable person in
the em ployee’ s position would be compelled to resign. ” ( Turner

, supra, 7 Cal.4th at p. 1251 .)
Turner further tells us that, “[i]n order to amount to a constructive discharge, adverse working conditions must be unusually ‘aggravated’ or amount to a ‘continuous p atte rn’ before the situation will be deemed intolerable.” ( Turner, supra, 7 Cal.4th at p. 1247; see id. at p. 1246 [“The proper focus is on whether the resignation was coerced, not whether it was simply one rational option for the employee.”].) “ [A] poor performance rating or a demot ion, even when accompanied by reduction in pay, does not by itself trigger a constructive discharge. ” ( Id. at32

p. 1247; see also Gibson v. Aro Corp . (19 95) 32 Cal.App. 4th 1628,
1635 ( Gibson ) [employee’ s demotion does not const itute constructive discharge].) But, as the court observed in Scott v. Pacific Gas & Electric Co. (1995) 11 Cal.4th 454 ( Scott )

, “ Turner
did not hold

. . . that a demotion can never be the basis for a wrongful termination. ” ( Id. at p. 468, fn. 3 ; see ibi d. [ observing that the question “ whether a demotion may be so drastic or punitive as to constitute a constructive discharge ” was not before
the Scott court].)
The standard by which a constructive discharge is determined “ is an objective one, and the proper focus is on the working conditions themselves. ” ( Gibson, supra, 32 Cal.App.4th at p. 1637 , citing Turner , supra , 7 Cal. 4th at pp. 1248, 1251 ; see ibid. [“ Bruised egos and hurt feelings are not part of the Turner equation

. ”] .)
iii. C ontention s and conclus ions
Plaintiff contends he “proved that his punitive demotion was accompanied by aggravating conditions.” By this we
understand him to mean that there was substantial evidence his
demotion

, together with circumstances preceding it, constituted
adverse wor king conditions that

– as the jury was instructed

– were “unusually aggravated or involve [d] a con tinuous pattern of mistreatment,” thus making the situation int olerable and effectively coercing his resignation. ( See Turner, supra, 7 Cal.4th at p. 1247.) We do not find such evidence in the record. Plaintiff lists, as the intolerable conditions that forced him to resign, the following: (1) the May 28 reduction in his columns from three to two per week; (2) Mr. Duvoisin’s statement to Mr. James (conveye d to plaintiff at the May 28 meeting with
Mr. James) that plaintiff was a “public embarrassment” to The33

Times ; (3) Mr. Duvoisin’s criticism , conveyed at the May 28 and May 29 meetings, that plaintiff’s writing was sloppy and not up

to The Times ’s standards ; (4) “[f]alse accus[ations] of unethical conduct”; (5) the suspension of his columns “for an unreasonable 55 days” (June 24 to August 8) ; (6) on June 24, plaintiff was “told not to say anything” about the investigation, so he could not “explain himself to his sources

. . . and fans, damaging his journalistic resources”; (7) he was “ [ d ] amaged in his professional reputation with his column inexplicably absent for two months”; (8) his demotion to an “entry

- level assignment position, based upon false policy vi olations resulting from discriminatory motives”; (9) the August 8 final warning that “placed [him] on a performance plan warning of potential termination”; and (10) the September 4 offer of “an ambiguous columnist position, reporting to editors who falsely accused him and called him untrustworthy.” We conclude, as a matter of law, that none of these circumstances, alone or in combination, amount to working
conditions that are either unusually aggravated or a continuous pattern of mistreatment. There is no evidence to support some of them. Others consist only of plaintiff’s subjective reaction to standard employer disciplinary actions

– criticism, investigation

, demotion, performance plan

– that, even if undertaken for reasons (plaintiff’s age and disabili ty) later found to include discrimination, are well within an employer’s prerogative for running its business. Unless those standard tools are employed
in an unus u ally aggravated manner or involve a pattern of continuous mistreatment, their use cannot con stitute constructive discharge. We begin with two points of clarification.34 First, t here was, as the trial court found, substantial
evidence that plaintiff’s age and disability were “substantial motivating reason[s]” for the adverse employment action or
act ion s to which plaintiff was subjected. But the discriminatory
motive f or plaintiff’s working conditions has no bearing on whether the evidence was sufficient to establish constructive discharge

. ( See Cloud v. Casey (1999) 76 Cal.App.4 th 895, 905 [“The qu estion

. . . is not whether there was [unlawful gender] discrimination [the jury found there was, and the court upheld punitive damages], but whether the discriminatory working conditions were so extreme as to coerce a reasonable employee to resign, thereb y constituting a constructive discharge”; “[u]nder the objective test set out in Turner ,” the trial court correctly ruled the plaintiff’s resignation was not a constructive discharge as a matter of law ].) Second, the record is clear on this poin t : The p ublication of the SBJ article provided a legitimate basis for an inquiry by defendant, because it suggested the possibility that the video of the Dwight Howard interview was being used to promote a n outside business arrangement between plaintiff and Mr. To llin
for the creation of a television show. While the evidence may allow inferences of additional motives, no reasonable juror could
conclude that defendant was not entitled to undertake an investigation. P laintiff’s personal reaction to that investigati on or to his demotion cannot p rovide a basis to conclude that plaintiff’s working conditions were “unusually aggravated” or that there was a “continuous pattern of mistreatment.” As
Gibson expressly states, “[u] nder Turner , the proper focus is on
the work ing conditions t hemselves, not on the plaintiff’ s subjective reaction to those conditions. ” ( Gibson, supra, 3235

Cal.App.4 th at p. 1636 ; see ibid. [“[The plaintiff’s] embarrassment about working as a sales representative does not
convert his demotion into a constructive discharge ,” and “ People who are demoted naturally have new job responsibilities, new supervision, and lower pay. Inferentially, that is what is supposed to happen when one is demoted. ” ].) With those p rinciples in mind , it is plain the evide nce did not support intolerable working conditions forcing plaintiff’s resignation.
The first three items plaintiff lists ( the column reduction,
and Mr. Duvoisin’s criticisms of plaintiff as a “public
embarrassment” and for sloppy writing ) do not remotely resemble “unusually aggravated” working conditions. C riticism of an employee’s job performance, even “ ‘unfair or outrageous’ ” criticism, “ ‘does not create the intolerable working conditions necessary to support a claim of constructive discharge.’ ” ( G ibson,

supra, 32 Cal.App.4th at p. 1636 , italics omitted .) The fifth, sixth and seventh items (the suspension of his columns “for an unreasonable 55 days,” during which he was “told not to say anything” about the investigation, thus damaging his journalist ic resources and his professional reputation) find no support in the evidence. His column was suspended, but there was no evidence of any unreasonable delay in the investigation. Nor was there any evidence of damage to his sources or to his reputation. The evidence plaintiff cites for this is that he was worried about his reputation, and received many emails (from “everybody fro m big

- time athletes to readers” who “want ed to know why [he was] not writing

, ” including “questions whether he is being fired.” While this is evidence of plaintiff’s own stress and concern, it is not evidence of damage to his reputation or to his36

relationships with his sources. As the trial court aptly stated, plaintiff’s avoidance of business associates and readers while
awaitin g the outcome of the investigation is not evidence of “an improper action or any resulting intolerable working conditions. Necessarily, when an employer undertakes a review of an employee’s conduct, there will be a passage of time before an investigation can be completed and it would be expected the employee would experience anxiety.” A similar conclusion applies to plaintiff’s fourth item (“[f]alse accus[a tions] of unethical conduct”). Certainly there was conflicting evidence, and the jury could properl y find plaintiff did not, in fact, engage in any unethical conduct. But an
i nvestigation into that issue does not create the “sufficien tly extraordinary and egregious ” conditions ( Turner, supra, 7 Cal.4th at p. 1246) necessary to trigger a constructive di scharge. The record fully supports the trial court’s conclusion there was no evidence that any damage to plaintiff’s reputation “was occurring or eventually occurred.” As the court pointed out, “There was no evidence that anyone in the workplace, beyond those involved in the investigation, knew of any allegations of ethics violations. Employee matters, including investigations, are considered to be confidential and there was no evidence that such confidentiality was breached at any time.” 2

2 Plaintiff points to Mr. Dwyre’s testimony that reputation is “huge” in the newspaper business and an alleged ethical violation

c an be “death” to a columnist’s career. No doubt that is so, but that has no bearing where there is no breach of confidentiality. And, as the trial court pointed out, Mr. Dwyre did not testify that

any kind of ethical violation would have that effect. (“ All of the

so

- called ethics violations that were potentially involved in this investigation related to the internal operations of the37 Finally, the eighth, ninth a nd tenth items (plaintiff’s demotion to an “entry

- level” position , placement on a performance plan, and the post

- resignation offer to restore his column) likewise are not evidence of “unusually aggravated” working conditions or a “pattern of mistreatment.” ( There is no evidence plaintiff was demot ed to an “entry

- level” position

– only plaintiff’s own perception that he was demoted from “the top of
the hill down to the bottom.” And the offer to return plaintiff to his position as columnist o ccurred after his resignation and could
not have contributed to it. ) As we have already observed, Turner

, and cases before and after it, all tell us that demotion cannot by itself trigger a constructive discharge. Neither can a performance plan, which is a natural accompaniment to a demotion.
Plaintiff contends that a demotion when coupled with other circumstances may amount to “unusually aggravated” working conditions or to a continuous pattern of mistreatment, citing Thompson v. Tracor Flight Systems, I nc. (2001) 86 Cal.App.4th 1156 ( Thompson ) [concluding substantial evidence supported the jury’s constructive discharge finding].) Specifically, plaintiff points to Thompson ’s rejection of the employer’s “attempts to slice into separate incidents

– and to evaluate individually

– evidence from which the jury could and clearly did find a ‘continuous pattern’ of conduct on the part of [the employer].” ( Id. at p. 1168.) Thompson does not help plaintiff . In Thompson (which did not involve a demotion), there wa s evidence the plaintiff’s

newspaper [,] and not to relationships with those outside such as maintenance of confidentiality or accurate and truthful r eporting of what was said or occurred. As a matter of common sense, it is the latter that has the potential of compromising the reputation of a columnist or reporter.” )38

supervisor “intentionally had made it impossible for [the plaintiff] to do her job through a continuous course of intimidation and harassment.” ( Thompson, supra , 86 Cal.App.4 th at p. 1170.) Thompson observed that “employers
hav e the right to unfairly and harshly criticize their employees, to embarrass them in front of other employees, and to threaten to terminate or demote the employee.” ( Id. at p. 1171.) But “a continuous course of such actions, uncorrected by management, can constitute objectively intolerable working conditions.” ( I

bid

. ) Citing the Turner standard (“ ‘adverse working conditions must be unusually “aggravated” or amount to a “continuous pattern” ’ ” ), Thompson concludes : “Implicit in this disjunctive formula tion is that even though individual incidents in a campaign of harassment do not constitute justification for an employee to resign, the overall campaign of harassment can constitute such a justification.” ( Thompson, at p. 1172.) This case is nothing like Thompson

. The evidence plaintiff cites does not show an “overall campaign of harassment,” as it did
in Thompson . It shows meetings conveyi ng criticisms (that plaintiff found insulting ) ; suspension of plaintiff’s columns while an investigation was conduc ted ( causing plaintiff anxiety and depression ); the investigation (which plaintiff felt was “ unfair ”
and “ unreasonable, ” but during which, as the trial court found, “[t]here was no evidence that at any time

. . . he was the object, directly or indirectly, of any criticism, hostility or harassment” ) ; and the ultimate d emotion and final warning ( performance plan )

, in which The Times indicated the investigation’s findings of ethical violations had “damage[d] our trust in you and in your suitability to serve as a Times columnist” ( a conclusion with which plaintiff disagreed).39 In short, the evidence showed only plaintiff’s personal

, subjective reactions to defendant’s use of standard disciplinary procedures : criticisms, a suspension, an investigation, and
demot ion with a performance plan

– all performed with no breach of confidentiality and with no harassment or other mistreatment of plaintiff. While the evidence al lowed the inference that age or disability discrimination was a motivating factor in one or more of defendant’ s actions, nothing in the conveyance of the criticism, the performance of the investigation, or the resulting demotion and performance plan reflected any “unusually aggravated” working conditions or the “continuous pattern of mistreatment”

nec essary for a constructive discharge

. It is the working
conditions themselves

– not the plaintiff’s subjective reaction to
them

– that are the sine qua non of a constructive discharge. (See Gibson, supra, 32 Cal.App.4th at p. 1636 .)
P laintiff insists th at Turner ’ s objective standard means we
must assess the evidence of “whether conditions were intolerable” from the point of view of a “ prominent columnist for [a] national publication”

– not from the point of view of “ reasonable employees generally. ” He p oints out he was “a public figure in an influential position, whose actions and absences were observed by the journalism world, his sources and the public at large, ” so the jury “properly considered evidence of [his] own emotional distress” in deciding “wh ether a reasonable person in his position would have found his working conditions similarly intolerable.” He concludes there was substantial evidence that “[ his ] situation had become so intolerable that he could not continue working for these men
who had discriminated against him and impugned his integrity.”
Plaintiff’s contention is simply contrary to law, which imposes an objective standard, and requires “ the proper focus [to40

be] on the working conditions themselves ,” and “ not on the plaintiff’ s subject ive reaction to those conditions. ” ( Gibson, supra, 32 Cal.App.4th at p p . 1636 , 1637 .) The standard does not change merely because of the employee’s prominen ce . To hold otherwise

c ould turn any emplo yer investigation of a well

- known employee
into a const ructive discharge

, and eviscerate the requirement the employee show “sufficiently extraordinary and egregious” conditions ( Turner, supra, 7 Cal.4th at p. 1246) to trigger a constructive discharge. In the end, the evidence merely shows, as the trial court

c oncluded, plaintiff’s “own reaction to the fact of an investigation
in which The Times sought information from others instead of accepting his own version of events.” The evidence shows plaintiff’s loss of trust and confidence in his superiors at The
Time s , but “[t]his is also his personal response from the fact that
he believes that he did n othing wrong.” In short, the record is devoid of evidence that defendant intentionally created or knowingly permitted “ working conditions
that were so intolerable or aggravated at the time of the employee ’ s resignation that a reasonable employer would realize
that a re asonable person in the employee’ s position would be compelled to resign. ” ( Turner , supra, 7 Cal.4th at p. 1251 .) Accordingly, the trial court did not e rr in granting defendant’s JNOV motion on plaintiff ’s constructive discharge claim, and we need not consider the court’s alternative order granting a new
trial on that claim.
b

. The r uling granting a new t rial on d amages i

. The standard of review

“ The d etermination of a motion for a new trial rests so completely within the court’ s discretion that its action will not be41

disturbed unless a manifest and unmistakable abuse of discretion clearly appears. This is particularly true when the discretion is

exerc ised in favor of awarding a new trial, for this action does not finally dispose of the matter. So long as a reasonable or even fairly debatable justification under the law is shown for the order granting the new trial, the order will not be set aside. ” ( Jiminez
v. Sears , Roebuck & Co. (1971) 4 Cal. 3d 379, 387 ( Jiminez ) .)
A new trial order “ ‘ must be sustained on appeal unless the opposing party demonstrates that no reasonable finder of fact could have found for the movant on [the trial court’ s] theory. ’ ” ( Lane v. Hughes Aircraft Co. (2000) 22 Cal.4 th 405, 412.)

ii

. Background In addition to granting defendant’s JNOV motion on the constructive discharge claim, the trial court granted defendant’s
motion for a new trial “on the claim for constructive dis charge (termination) and the damages assessed on that claim.” The
court denied the new trial motion “ on all grounds other than the ground of the insufficiency of the evidence to sustain a claim of constructive discharge and the award of economic damages

a ddressed in this ruling.” The next day, January 5, 2016, defendant filed an ex parte application to clarify the court’s ruling “to expressly state that
The Times motion for a new trial as to noneconomic damages is granted.” Defendant pointed out that pl aintiff’s “alleged adverse employment actions supporting noneconomic damages are substantially interwoven with the now

- defunct constructive discharge claim

. . . .” Plaintiff had no opportunity to respond in writing (because January 5, 201 6, was the last day the court had jurisdiction to modify its ruling), but counsel were heard fully at a hearing on42

that day. The court observed the application was “legitimately a
motion for clarification because

. . . at no place in the ruling did I specifically mentio n the noneconomic damages.” After all counsel presented their arguments, the court granted the ex parte application, stating the “application is granted and I will clarify.” The court concluded: “The clarification will be that I said all damages in seve ral parts.
I meant ‘all damages.’ I did not address specifically the reason why it is all damages, but I think the clarification calls for it and I will so clarify.” The court’s minute order states, “It was the
court’s intention that the noneconomic dam ages should be included because it is not possible to determine what amount, if any, the jury awarded because of a constructive discharge.” Later that day, the court issued an amended ruling, adding this explan a tion: “ [T]he granting of the motion for a n ew trial includes the issue of the noneconomic damages awarded on the ground that it is not possible to determine what portion, if any, of said damages was based on the claim of a constructive discharge which is an adverse employment action. There was sub stantial evidence of [plaintiff’s] emotional distress arising from the events that are the basis of his claims of discrimination. Those claims, however, included his distress arising from the conditions that he
considered to be the basis of a constructive discharge and the effect and consequences of that discharge on his emotional health. It is not possible to separate what damages may have
been awarded for the discrimination alone from what noneconomic damages were awarded that included a constructive
di scharge. It is probable that the jury’s award of noneconomic damages included some compensation for the constructive43

discharge which is an event of a very different character than a voluntary resignation. ”

iii

. C ontentions and conclusions
Plaintiff cont ends the trial court made an error of law when
it conclu ded it was impossible to determine “what amount, if any, the jury awarded because of a constructive discharge .” For the proposition that the court’s ruling was based on a mistaken conclusion of law, plaintiff cites Bermudez v. Ciolek (2015) 237 Cal.App.4 th 1311, 1324. That case stated that “ ‘[w]hether a plaintiff “ is entitled to a particular measure of damages is a question of law subject to de novo review, ” ’ ” while the amount of damages is a fact question. ( Ibid. , see id. at p. 1329 [issue was proper measure of damages for medical expenses in suit by an uninsured plaintiff].)
We fail to see the relevance of Bermudez to the trial court’s ruling : that it was impossible to determine what amount o f
noneconomic damages the jury would have assessed in circumstances where, as a matter of law, plaintiff’s decision to resign after his demotion was voluntary, not coerced. While

p laintiff insists the ruling rested on a n error of law

, he provides

no cogen t explanation of the alleged error

. First, he asserts he “was denied his due process rights” because he had no opportunity to respond in writing to defendant’s ex parte application to clarify the court’s ruling

. Plaintiff cites no authority for, and no f urther discussion of, his due process claim, and accordingly we do not consider it further. As noted above, plaintiff was heard fully at the hearing , and he
did not claim in the trial court that he was denied due process

. Second, plaintiff repeatedly ass erts that constructive discharge was a legal theory, not a separate cause of action

– that44

is, his constructive discharge was one of the several adverse employment actions defendant took against him, all based on his age and disability. In fact, plaintiff alleged a separate cause of action, but in the end the court and all parties agreed it was unnecessary to give the CACI instructions on all the elements of constructive discharge in violation of public policy. Instead, the court and all parties agreed to give only a modified version of CACI No. 2510 explaining the phrase “ constructive discharge .” The court and all parties agreed that plaintiff needed to maintain his claim for constructive discharge in violation of FEHA in order to recover economic damage s. W e find no relevance in plaintiff’s proposition that constructive discharge was a “finding” and “not a separate cause of action.”
Plaintiff makes another confounding argument to the effect that the jury found his demotion was discriminatory ; the
evide nce supporting his discrimination claims included “the same conduct on which the legal theory of constructive discharge was
base d ” ; and even if defendant’s conduct was insufficient to prove constructive discharge, that conduct “did not become inadmissible to prove [plaintiff’s] FEHA claims, and all damages resulting from discriminatory adverse conduct including demotion are
recoverable.” All that may be so, but the question is not the admissibility of the evidence of defendant’s conduct (or the
recoverabil ity of all damages “resulting from” that conduct). Th e question is the amount of damages for emotional distress that actually did “ result[] from ” the discriminatory demotion

– as opposed to the emotional distress that may have resulted from pla intiff’s ow n decision to resign (and his later decision not to accept defendant’s offer to return him to his position as columnist).45 There was evidence, for example, of plaintiff’s stress and anxiety during the column suspension, but there was also testimony about a n increase in his depression after he left The
Times . As recounted earlier, t he defense’s forensic psychologist testified plaintiff “had an emotional reaction to the loss of prestige and recognition due to his decision to no longer work at the L.A. Times, ” and plaintiff’s expert psychiatrist also testified that “it may be the case that the fact of quitting

. . . did contribute to the depression worsening.” There was also testimony that plaintiff’s symptoms improved when he went to work for the Orange Coun ty Regi ster, and he was eventually more depressed after leaving the Register. In short, we agree with the trial court’s conclusion that it is impossible to separate “what damages may have been award ed
for the discrimination alone from what noneconomic da mages were awarded that included a constructive discharge”

– that is, damages for plaintiff’s distress arising from “the effect and consequences of that discharge ,” an event “of a very different character than a voluntary resignation.” 3 There was no error in the trial court’s ruling.

3 P laintiff also suggests that “[i]f any ambiguity theoretically resulted from the d amages questions in the Special Verdict, then Defendant invited that error and is prevented from attacking the Special Verdict.” This claim is baseless. The comments of defense counsel that plaintiff cites (merely confirming plaintiff “could be discrimin ated against but not constructively terminated and have emotional distress damages”) occurred on October 28, 2015, when the parties first discuss ed with the court their respective drafts of the special verdict form. The following day, after further discus sions during the morning session and at the beginning of the afternoon session, the clerk handed the court a46

2. Defendant’s Appeal Defendant contends the trial court should have granted its JNOV motion on all of plaintiff’s claims

, because plaintiff “did not suffer an adverse employment action.” Alternatively, defendant
contends th e court should have granted a new trial on liability for plaintiff’s discrimination claims, “untainted by [ plaintiff’s ] erroneous constructive discharge theory.” We disagree with both
contentions.

a. The r uling denying JNOV on p laintiff’s a ge and
d isability d iscrimination c laims As discussed above, our review of the trial cou rt’s denial of defendant’s JNOV motion is limited to whether any substantial evidence supports the jury’s conclusions . Defendant’s argument on appeal further limits our review, because defendant’s sole
claim is that plaintiff “did not experience an adverse employment
action

, ” and so his discrimination claims “fail as a matter of law.” We do not agree. Defendant’s claim depends on an insupportable
characterization of both the facts and t he law. First, defendant characterizes plaintiff’s demotion from columnist to reporter as a “proposed reassignment” and a “temporary reassignment to senior reporter” that “never took
effect.” That is not what happened . On August 8, 2013, plaintiff

was to ld, both orally and in a “final written warning,” that he was no longer a columnist, “effective immedi ately.”

verdict form

, and both parties told the court that they agreed upon the verdict form. Indeed, in his opening brief on appeal, plaintiff states, “B oth parties agreed upon the Special Verdict Form.”47 Second, t here was ample evidence that the position of columnist was significantly different from and far more prestigious than that of reporter. As defendant necessarily
concede s , a job reassignment may be an adverse employment
action when it entails materially adverse consequences. ( McRae v. Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation ( 2006) 142 Cal.App.4 th 377 , 393 ( McRae ) [ in a lateral transfer where a plaintiff “ ‘ suffers no diminution in pay or benefits ,’ ” the plaintiff does not suffer an actionable injury “ ‘ unless there are some other materially adverse consequences

. . . such that a reasonable trier of fact could conclude that the plaintif f has suffered objectively tangible harm ’ ” ] ; see White v. Burlington Northern & Santa Fe
R ailwa y Co. (6th Cir. 2004) 364 F.3d 789, 803 ( White ) [transferring the plaintiff “from her forklift operator job to a standard track laborer job” that paid the same was an adverse employment action; the new position was “more arduous” and “ ‘dirtier’ ” and the forklift position “required more qualifications, which is an indication of prestige”; “[i]n essence,

. . . the reassignment was a demotion”].) Such “ ‘ material ly adverse

consequences ’ ” ( McRae, at p. 393) are apparent here. In short, d efendant’s action was n ot a “proposed reassignment”; it was “effective immediately” and it was entirely reasonable for jurors to conclude the change from columnist to reporter was necessarily accompanied by “ ‘ materially adverse

consequences. ’ ” ( McRae, supra, 142 Cal.App.4th at p. 393.)
Unlike McRae , here the “proposed reassignment ” involved “a change in status [and] a less distinguished title,” and a “significant change in job r esponsibilities.” ( Ibid. ) Testimony from plaintiff, Mr. Dwyre and others confirmed that the position of columnist was “the most prestigious writing position” at the48

newspaper, and “very different from a reporter, reporter II position at the paper,” givin g the columnist “wide discretion” on writing topics. (Indeed, Mr. Duvoisin’s “final written warning” describes a Times columnist as “a privileged position in which a writer enjoys great latitude.”) The change from columnist to reporter was plainly a demo tion, and certainly amounted to “a tangible injury supporting a claim of adverse employment action.” ( McRae , at p. 394; see Burlington Industries, Inc. v. Ellerth (1998) 524 U.S. 742, 761 [“[a] tangible employment action constitutes a significant change i n employment status, such as

. . . reassignment with significantly different responsibilities ”].)
Defendant insists that “before [plaintiff] ever worked a single day in his new position, The Times decided to restore [plaintiff’s] column.” Consequently, de fendant concludes, plaintiff’s “temporary reassignment to senior reporter” was not “sufficiently final to constitute an adverse employment action,” citing Brooks v. City of San Mateo (9 th Cir. 2000) 229 F.3d 917

, 930 ( Brooks ) , and Dobbs

- Weinstein v. Vander bilt University (6 th Cir. 1999) 185 F.3d 542, 546 ( Dobbs

- Weinstein ) . This contention ignores other facts, and the cited authorities do not support it. The reason plaintiff did not “work[] a single day in his new position” is that he chose to leave The Tim es rather than accept the demotion . It is undisputed that he never returned to work after August 8, 20 13, and that four days later, his lawyer advised
The Times that plaintiff considered himself to have been constructively discharged. While we have concl uded there was no constructive discharge, there was certainly a de facto v oluntary resignation. P laintiff’s refusal to accept The Times ’s later offer

– to “bring [plaintiff] back to the L .A. Times”

– may affect the damages he can recover, but that belated offer cannot change the49

nature of defendant’s employment action. His demotion was “effective immediately,” and by its own terms was a “final written warning ” that ended with the advisement that The Times would “keep an eye on [plaintiff’s] performance go ing forward” and that compliance with the listed performance expectations “will be necessary to ensure that any additional disciplinary measures up to and including termination are not necessary.” Plaintiff never returned to work, and the purpose of the S eptember 4 meeting was to “discuss [plaintiff] returning.” Under these circumstances,

no reasonable person would view The Times ’s August 8 action as a “proposed reassignment” that “never took effect.” 4
Brooks and Dobbs

- Weinstein do not support defendant’s assertion that plaintiff “did not experience an adverse employment action.” Brooks was a retaliation case, and the plaintiff “ allege [ d ] that her performance review was downgraded from ‘satisfactory’ to ‘needs improvement’ because of her complaint about [ an episode of sexual harassment by a

co worker ].” ( Brooks, supra, 229 F.3d at p. 929.) The court observed that “an undeserved negative performance review can constitute an adverse employment decision.” ( Ibid. ) But in
Brooks , the evaluation “was not an a dverse employment action because it was subject to modification by the [employer].” ( Id. at pp. 929

- 930.) ( The plaintiff had refused to accept the review and submitted a written appeal to her employer, expressing her view
that the evaluation was intended to retaliate against h er for

4 This conclusion makes it unnecessary to consider the parties’ debate over whether defendant’s various actions preceding the demotion (reduction in columns, allegedly unwarranted criticism, and so on) am ounted to adverse employment action s

.50

complaining about the co worker’s harassment. While her employer was considering her appeal, the plaintiff “left work and never returned.” ( Id. at p. 922.)) The court concluded that, “[b]ecause the evaluation could well have been changed on appeal, it was not sufficiently final to constitute an adverse employment action.” ( Id. at p. 930.)
The differences between Brooks and this case are clear

. Brooks does not support the proposition that plaintiff’s demotion was “subject to modification” and “not sufficiently final.” Plaintiff had no internal appeal; his demotion , which was “effective immediately,” followed a thorough investigation during which his column was suspended and which reached negative conclusions about plaintif

f’s compliance with defendant’s professional
standards

. Brooks does not support defendant’s claim.
The Dobbs

- Weinstein case does not help defendant either. Indeed, the Sixth Circuit effectively disavowed Dobbs

- Weinstein
in White , supra, 364 F.3d 789

. 5 I n White, the en banc court held “that a thirty

- seven day suspension without pay constitutes an adverse employment action regardless of whether the suspension is followed by a reinstatement with back pay.” ( Id. at p. 791 .) 6

5 The White decision was affirmed in Burlington Northern & Santa Fe R ailwa

y Co . v. White (2006) 548 U.S. 53, 57, 70

- 72.

6 White explained that in Dobbs

- Weinstein (a case involving denial of tenure), “[d]espite the facts that [the plaintiff] was initially denied tenure and her employment ended temporarily, this court held that [the plaintiff] had not suffered an adverse employment acti on cognizable under Title VII. . . . We relied upon the fact that Vanderbilt reve rsed the decision of its dean and granted [the plaintiff] back pay as the result of its internal grievance procedure. [Citation.] This reversal, we reasoned, was51 In sum, there is no legal suppor t for defendant’s assertion that plaintiff suffered no adverse employment action as a matter
of law. Both the law and substantial evidence show otherwise. Defendant offers no other basis for finding error in the trial court’s denial of its JNOV motion on plaintiff’s discrimination claims, and we therefore affirm the ruling.
b. The ruling denying a new trial on plaintiff’s age and disability discrimination claims Defendant contends the trial court should have granted a new trial on liability for plaintiff’s discrimination claims “untainted by [plaintiff’s] erroneous constructive discharge theory.” Again, we find no merit in this claim. As already stated, a trial court’s ruling on a new trial
motion “will not be disturbed unless a manifest and
unmistakable a buse of discretion clearly appears.” ( Jiminez

, supra , 4 Cal. 3d at p. 387

. ) The same is true of a ruling limiting a new trial to the issue of damages. ( Liodas v. Sahadi (1977) 19 Cal.3d 278, 285 ( Liodas ) [“ ‘ A new trial limited to the damage issue may be ordered where it can be reasonably said that the

the ‘ultimate employment decision.’ [Citation.] We held that ‘intermediate’ tenure decisio ns that are appealable through a tenure review process cannot form the basis of a Title VII claim.” ( White, supra, 364 F.3d at pp. 800

- 801.) But

, after reviewing later authorities, the White court “now join[s ] the majority of other circuits in rejecting the ‘ultimate employment decision’ standard” ( id. at p. 801), finding (among other reasons) that that standard contravened the purpose of Title VII to make persons whole for injuries suffered from employment discrimination. ( White, at p. 802; see id. at p . 803 [ holding the plaintiff’s election to challenge her suspension without pay “through an internal grievance process does not render the decision [to suspend her] not actionable under Title VII”].)52

liability issue has been determined by the jury. An abuse of discretion must be shown before a reviewing cou rt will reverse the trial judge’ s decision. ’ ”]; Leipert v. Honold (1952) 39 Cal.2d 462, 467 [“ It is presumed that in passing upon the motion [the trial judge] has weighed the evidence and the possibility of prejudice to the defendant. ].) But, “ ‘When a limited retrial might be prejudicial to either party, the failure to grant a new trial on
all of t he issues is an abuse of discretion.’ ” ( Liodas, at p. 286.) According to defendant , ordering a new trial only on plaintiff’s noneconomic damages was an abuse of discretion “because [plaintiff’s] erroneous constructive discharge theory was completely int ertwined with [plaintiff’s] claims for age and disability discrimination, and the damages resulting from those
claims.” Defendant summarizes by saying that plaintiff’s “constructive discharge theory was the sum and substance of his liability case,” and “t he jury’s liability finding on [plaintiff’s] discrimination claims is inseparable from the jury’s conclusion that [plaintiff] was constructively discharged.” We are unable to find any factual or legal merit in defendant’s argument. First, as the special verdict form makes clear, the jury could not have found a constructive discharge without first finding that plaintiff’s age (or disability) was a substantial motivating reason for any adverse employment action. So, in that sense, plaintiff

’s liability cl aims were related. But they were not, in any sense of the word, “inseparable.” The fact that the evidence was insufficient to sustain the constructive discharge claim (which requires intolerable working conditions) does not
mean there was insufficient ev idence that age (or disability) was a substantial motivating reason for plaintiff’s demotion.53 Second, the only evidence defendant cites in connection with its contention that “it would be unjust to permit the jury’s finding of liability for discrimination to stand” is evidence of the emotional consequences to plaintiff of the loss of his position at
The Times

. But this is evidence related to damages, on which there will be a new trial, not evidence on liability issues. And
defendant does not claim there w as any evidence admitted on the constructive discharge issue that would have been inadmissible on the discrimination issues. Defendant merely cites plaintiff’s opening statement and closing arguments to the jury to the effect that defendant’s conduct amou nted to a constructive discharge. But arguments are not e vidence, and we see no basis to conclude
that counsel’s arguments somehow “tainted” the jury’s discrimination findings, which were clearly separate from and a precondition for its constructive disch arge finding. Third, and most importantly, defendant misconstrues the meaning of the authorities it cites for the proposition that “ where the damages issues in a case are ‘so interwoven’ with those of liability, a new trial on damages alone is impermiss ible. ” Defendant cites, for example, Hamasaki v. Flotho (1952) 39 Cal.2d 602, for the proposition that “situations may arise where the issues are so interwoven that a partial retrial would be unfair to the other party.” ( Id. at p. 608.) Of course that i s so. But in
Hamasaki , “the jury [had], by compromising the issues of liability and damages, inextricably interwoven those issues, [so] a retrial of the damages issue alone based on the erroneous assumption that defendant’s liability has been determined w ould be extremely unjust to him.” ( Ibid. ) This, of course, is not such a

case.54 Nor is this a case like Liodas, supra, 19 Cal.3d at p age 286, or like any of the other cases defendant cites of “interwoven” liability and damages. In Liodas

, a new trial o n all issues was required because a partial new trial on damages would have been prejudicial. Because of erroneous damages instructions, “it [was] not possible to determine on what basis liability was predicated,” and the matter of liability for numerous allegedly fraudulent transactions was “substantially inseparable from that of damages in the present posture of the case.” ( Ibid. ) The second jury “would have no basis for determining which of the transactions the first jury actually found fraudulent, an d which, if any, it found fair,” issues that “go to the heart of the liability question.” ( I bi d. ) Similarly, in Gasoline Products Co. , Inc. v. Champlin Refining Co. (1931) 283 U.S. 494, 500, “ the question of damages
on the counterclaim is so interwoven with that of liability that the former cannot be submitted to the jury independently of the latter without confusion and uncertainty, which would amount to
a denial of a fair trial. ” This was because, “upon the new trial, the jury cannot fix the amount of damages unless also advised of the terms of the contract; and the dates of formation and breach may be material

. . . . ” ( Id. at p. 499.) But it was “impossible from an inspection of the present record to say precisely what
were the dates of formation a nd breach of the contract found by the jury, or its terms.” ( Ibid. ) This case is entirely different. Here, the issue of liability for discrimination was plainly determined by the jury , and that liability was independent of whether defendant’s discrimina tory conduct amounted to a constructive discharge . Defendant has

not shown how it could be prejudiced by a new trial

, limited to55

the amount of noneconomic damages that result ed from th e discrimination. The absence of a showing of prejudice or injustice
i s fatal to its claim. There was no error in the trial court’s denial of a new trial on plaintiff’s discrimination claims.
D ISPOSITION
The orders are affirmed. The parties shall bear their own costs on appeal.

GRIMES, J.

W E CONCUR:

BIGELOW

, P

. J.

FLIER, J.