Court Opinion

ID: 9746525
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-27 14:20:50.422607+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:25:14.374168
License: Public Domain

NICHOLSON, J.
I concur in the result. I also concur in the majority opinion except for the part defining the term “perpetrator” as found in Evidence Code section 1106, subdivision (b). Because, in my view, the majority defines the term too narrowly, I write separately.
The Legislature did not have hostile work environment harassment cases in mind when it enacted Evidence Code section 1106 and made the exception for conduct with a “perpetrator.” The statute fails to address, directly, whether the plaintiff’s sexual conduct is admissible on the issue of welcomeness and it gives no indication of what a “perpetrator” is when the plaintiff sues a corporate defendant or any other kind of employer, alleging harassment in the workplace. Review of the legislative history of section 1106 only reinforces the conclusion that the Legislature did not intend for section 1106 to apply to hostile work environment harassment cases, most likely because the subject never came up. Nonetheless, section 1106 includes the broad term “sexual harassment.” Therefore, I presume the Legislature would have us attempt to apply the public policy behind the statute, even if the face of the statute and its history reveal a legislative gap. Hence, I endeavor to apply the statute the way it appears the Legislature would have applied the statute had it considered hostile work environment sexual harassment cases.
Essential to a hostile environment harassment cause of action is that “the harassment complained of was sufficiently pervasive so as to alter the conditions of employment and create an abusive working environment . . . .” (Fisher v. San Pedro Peninsula Hospital (1989) 214 Cal.App.3d 590, 608 [262 Cal.Rptr. 842], italics added.) “Whether the . . . conduct complained of is sufficiently pervasive to create a hostile or offensive work *469environment must be determined from the totality of the circumstances.” (Id. at p. 609, italics added.) Thus, the trier of fact must determine whether the work environment is hostile or abusive, which may not be so if the plaintiff welcomed the conduct. The plaintiffs conduct within the work environment, particularly the plaintiffs sexual conduct, is genuinely probative of whether the plaintiff suffered injury because of the environment. Whether the plaintiff condoned, caused, or willingly participated in sexual conduct in the work environment is genuinely probative of whether the plaintiff suffered injury from the sexual conduct of others.
Consistent with the intent of the Legislature that the defendant in a sexual harassment case must be able to present a defense based on genuinely probative evidence, as noted by the majority, I conclude that a corporate defendant, acting through its employees, is the “perpetrator” for the purpose of applying Evidence Code section 1106. (See Reno v. Baird (1998) 18 Cal.4th 640, 656 [76 Cal.Rptr.2d 499, 957 P.2d 1333] [“corporation can act only through its individual employees”].) When a plaintiff accuses a corporate defendant of hostile work environment sexual harassment, the plaintiff necessarily alleges, either explicitly or implicitly, that the corporate defendant’s employees created a hostile work environment. Therefore, sexual conduct with corporate employees is sexual conduct with the “perpetrator.”
I would not limit the definition of “perpetrator,” as does the majority, to employees against whom the plaintiff has made allegations of harassing behavior. The majority’s anecdotes of stolen kisses in break rooms notwithstanding, its definition of “perpetrator” allows a plaintiff to limit genuinely probative evidence of welcomeness simply by carefully choosing the people against whom to make allegations of harassment. In that way, the plaintiff may mask genuinely probative evidence of conduct that took place on the employer’s premises and the employer’s time, while arguing entitlement to the employer’s money. That result runs contrary to the Legislature’s intent to accord due process to the accused by allowing evidence of welcomeness.
Finally, while I do not agree with the majority concerning the precise definition of “perpetrator,” I concur that, whatever the definition, the plaintiff was not prejudiced by the admission of her sexual conduct in this case. I therefore concur in the judgment.
Appellant’s petition for review by the Supreme Court was denied March 19, 2003. Kennard, 1, was of the opinion that the petition should be granted.