Court Opinion

ID: 9533534
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:32:30.556487+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:29:05.037067
License: Public Domain

*1038KENNARD, J., Dissenting.
Under California law, a government entity must indemnify any employee sued by a third party for acts arising within the scope of employment by reimbursing the employee for the costs incurred in litigating and settling the lawsuit. In this case, three women employed as deputy sheriffs at a county jail sued a male colleague, contending that he had sexually harassed them. After lengthy litigation, the parties settled the matter, and the male deputy and his insurance company (which had paid for the deputy’s lawyer and most of the cost of settlement) sought indemnification from the county for their litigation and settlement expenses.
The trial court granted summary judgment for the county, concluding that the deputy’s acts of sexual harassment were outside the scope of employment, and that therefore the county was not obligated to reimburse the deputy or his insurer for their litigation and settlement expenses. The Court of Appeal reversed, holding that the deputy’s acts were within the scope of employment, thus entitling the deputy and his insurer to indemnification by the county.
The majority agrees with the trial court that, as a matter of law, the harassing deputy’s conduct was outside the scope of his employment. Justice Mosk, on the other hand, as expressed in his dissenting opinion, agrees with the Court of Appeal that, as a matter of law, the conduct fell within the scope of employment. I find neither of these extreme views persuasive. As I see it, whether the deputy’s acts of harassment were within or outside the scope of employment is a question of fact that, on the record in this case, may not be resolved on summary judgment but must be determined by the trier of fact.
I
In 1983, Deputy Sheriff Cynthia Bates was one of the first women deputies assigned to work at Santa Clara County’s North County jail. Also working at the jail was Deputy Craig Nelson. In February 1984, Deputy Bates was assigned to the main jail, and Deputy Nelson became her training officer. In June 1984, Bates complained to her superiors that at both jails Nelson had made offensive, sexually explicit comments to her and had touched her on her legs and thighs. Another deputy, Toni Daugherty, alleged that in January or February of 1984 Nelson had grabbed her on the buttocks.
Santa Clara County (hereafter the County) conducted an internal investigation. Deputy Nelson acknowledged making the comments in question to *1039Deputy Bates, but denied that they were offensive; he asserted that the comments were made in a joking manner and were not intended to harass. He admitted “brushing” Bates on the thigh, but denied doing it repeatedly. He denied grabbing Deputy Daugherty’s buttocks, but admitted that he had touched them in an unsuccessful attempt to put double-stick tape on them as a practical joke.
Following its investigation, the County concluded that Deputy Nelson had sexually harassed the two women deputies, and suspended Nelson without pay for fourteen days. On administrative appeal, an arbitrator reduced the suspension to two days. Thereafter, Deputies Bates and Daugherty sued Deputy Nelson and the County in federal court, asserting claims of sexual harassment and differential treatment in violation of both title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2) and California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (Gov. Code, § 12940, subd. (h)). Joining in the complaint was a third deputy, Zana Murphy, who alleged, among other things, that Nelson had made offensive, sexually explicit comments to her also. The County refused to defend Nelson. He then obtained representation from Farmers Insurance Group, under a personal liability provision contained in his homeowner’s insurance policy. Nelson successfully moved for summary judgment on all of Murphy’s claims on the ground that they were untimely. On the eve of trial, Nelson settled with Bates and Daugherty, paying them a total of $150,000.1
Farmers Insurance Group and Nelson (hereafter jointly referred to as Farmers) then filed this action, asserting that the County was obligated to indemnify them for the amount of the settlement and the cost of defending the action. Both sides moved for summary judgment. The motions were based on declarations, the report of the arbitrator who had conducted the hearing on Deputy Nelson’s administrative appeal of the discipline imposed *1040against him,2 partial transcripts of the testimony in the disciplinary proceeding, and partial transcripts of the trial of the lawsuit brought by Deputies Bates, Daugherty, and Murphy against the County. These materials produced a significant area of disagreement relating to the conditions at the two jails at which the conduct complained of had occurred.
Farmers asserted that Deputy Nelson’s behavior, particularly his sexually oriented comments, was intended to be humorous, and was typical behavior at the jail.3 As described in the arbitrator’s report, Deputy Nelson told an internal affairs investigator: “Everything said or done was done in a joking manner. If at any point [Deputy Bates] would have said she was offended . . . that would have been the end of it. ... I definitely would not have continued on if I had known it was upsetting her.” In a declaration supporting Farmers’ motion for summary judgment, Nelson asserted that “profanity and sexually explicit language, banter, and horseplay are extremely common among the co-workers and peers in the jail.” Farmers also submitted a declaration from Lieutenant Armand Tiano, who had worked at the jail for many years, stating: “The jails have always been a place where strong language has been used, including profanity and conversation laced with sexual innuendo. This conversation takes place often in a joking manner between jail personnel, both male and female. In general, profanity, sexually explicit language, banter, and horseplay are extremely common among co-workers and peers.” There was also testimony by Sergeant David Pascual in the County’s disciplinary proceeding against Deputy Nelson that sexual banter was “very common” at the jail, “just a way to get rid of the stress of the job”; he described the jail as “a vulgar place to begin with. There is talk of everything.”
In its opposition to Farmers’ motion for summary judgment, the County asserted that the question whether sexual jokes and innuendo were common at the jail was a disputed issue of fact. The County relied on a statement by *1041Deputy Steven Cutright, quoted in the arbitrator’s ruling, that although there was “occasional joking around” among the employees at the jail, the joking was “not of a sexual nature.” The County also relied on disciplinary hearing testimony by Deputy Gagnon that “lewd, sexual comments” by deputies were not common at the jail.
The trial court granted the County’s motion for summary judgment, finding as a matter of law that Deputy Nelson’s acts of harassment4 were outside the scope of his employment. The Court of Appeal disagreed, holding that Nelson’s conduct as a matter of law fell within the scope of employment, and ordering the trial court to grant Farmers’ motion for summary judgment.
II
As a general rule, under the California Tort Claims Act a public entity must, upon request, provide for the defense of any employee sued “on account of any act or omission in the scope of his employment. . . .” (Gov. Code, § 995, italics added.)5 If the public entity refuses to do so, the employee may recover from the public entity “such reasonable attorney’s fees, costs and expenses as are necessarily incurred ... in defending the action . . .” (§ 996.4), as well as the cost of any judgment or claim paid by the employee (§ 825.2).6
Whether in this case the County must reimburse Farmers and Deputy Nelson for their litigation and settlement costs turns, therefore, on whether Nelson’s conduct towards Deputies Bates, Daugherty, and Murphy was in the scope of his employment. The Legislature intended the phrase “scope of . . . employment,” as used in the California Tort Claims Act, to have the meaning that our courts have given it in decisions “involving actions by third *1042persons against the employer for the torts of his employee.” (4 Cal. Law Revision Com. Rep. (Dec. 1963) p. 814, fn. 3.) Those cases provide that an employer may be held vicariously liable for an employee’s acts committed in the “scope of employment.” (Mary M. v. City of Los Angeles (1991) 54 Cal.3d 202, 208 [285 Cal.Rptr. 99, 814 P.2d 1341]; Perez v. Van Groningen & Sons, Inc. (1986) 41 Cal.3d 962, 967 [227 Cal.Rptr. 106, 719 P.2d 676]; Carr v. Wm. C. Crowell Co. (1946) 28 Cal.2d 652, 654-655 [171 P.2d 5].)
This court recently summarized the principles governing scope of employment: “ ‘A risk arises out of the scope of employment when “in the context of the particular enterprise an employee’s conduct is not so unusual or startling that it would seem unfair to include the loss resulting from it among other costs of the employer’s business. [Citations.] In other words, where the question is one of vicarious liability, the inquiry should be whether the risk was one ‘that may fairly be regarded as typical of or broadly incidental’ to the enterprise undertaken by the employer. [Citation.]” ’ ” (Mary M. v. City of Los Angeles, supra, 54 Cal.3d at p. 209, citing Perez v. Van Groningen & Sons, Inc., supra, 41 Cal.3d 962, 968, and Rodgers v. Kemper Constr. Co. (1975) 50 Cal.App.3d 608, 619 [124 Cal.Rptr. 143], brackets in Mary M.)
Acts that do not benefit the employer may nonetheless fall within the scope of employment; so may acts that are willful or malicious, and those that violate the employer’s express orders or policies. (Mary M. v. City of Los Angeles, supra, 54 Cal.3d at p. 209.)
In deciding whether in a particular case an employee’s conduct falls within the general rule of liability or within one of the exceptions to that rule, California long ago abandoned the “motive” test for determining scope of employment; under that test an act is within the scope of employment only if motivated by a desire to benefit the employer. We discarded this test nearly 50 years ago. (Fields v. Sanders (1947) 29 Cal.2d 834, 838-839 [180 P.2d 684, 172 A.L.R. 525].) As explained in Rodgers v. Kemper Constr. Co., supra, 50 Cal.App.3d at page 621: “Traditionally, before an employer could be held vicariously liable for an employee’s assault, proof was required that the employee intended to benefit or further the interest of the employer. (See 2 Harper & James, The Law of Torts [(1956)], p. 1392.) However, the ‘motive test,’ though still the ‘majority rule,’ has been abandoned in California (Fields v. Sanders, supra, 29 Cal.2d 834, 838-839; Carr v. Wm. Crowell Co., supra, 28 Cal.2d 652, 654; Note, 35 Cal.L.Rev. 126-128) and by federal courts applying federal tort law (Ira S. Bushey & Sons, Inc. v. United States [(1968)] 398 F.2d 167, 170-171).”
In applying the principles discussed above to the facts of this case, the pertinent inquiry is this: were Deputy Nelson’s acts of harassment so unusual or startling as to fall outside the scope of his employment? The *1043majority holds that, as a matter of law, Nelson acted outside the scope of his employment and that therefore this case may be resolved on summary judgment. As I shall explain, such a resolution is impossible on the record before this court.
A motion for summary judgment may be granted only when “there is no triable issue as to any material fact and ... the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law.” (Code Civ. Proc., § 437c, subd. (c).) Whether an employee has acted within the scope of employment is generally a question of fact, not of law. (Mary M. v. City of Los Angeles, supra, 54 Cal.3d at p. 213; Perez v. Van Groningen & Sons, Inc., supra, 41 Cal.3d at p. 968; Ducey v. Argo Sales Co. (1979) 25 Cal.3d 707, 722 [159 Cal.Rptr. 835, 602 P.2d 755].) It becomes a question of law that may be resolved on a motion for summary judgment only when “the facts are undisputed and no conflicting inferences are possible.” (Perez v. Van Groningen & Sons, Inc., supra, 41 Cal.3d at p. 968.) In this case, because the facts are in dispute, and because conflicting inferences are possible, the case may not be resolved on summary judgment.
True, certain facts—the details of the harassing acts committed by Deputy Nelson—are, for the most part, undisputed. But the facts relating to whether that conduct arose in the scope of employment are hotly disputed. Farmers asserts that Deputy Nelson’s actions were nothing more than sexually oriented joking and “horseplay,” that this behavior was typical of the jailhouse environment, and that Nelson simply did not realize that the women deputies found his conduct offensive. The County, by contrast, denies that Nelson’s conduct was common jailhouse behavior.
If, as Farmers asserts, such behavior was typical of the activities of employees at the jail, then Deputy Nelson’s acts of sexual harassment, although actionable, could not be considered so “unusual” or “startling” that it would be unfair to hold the County vicariously liable for his conduct.7 (Perez v. Van Groningen & Sons, Inc., supra, 41 Cal.3d at p. 968.) But if, as *1044the County contends, Deputy Nelson’s conduct was not typical of the jailhouse environment, then his acts of harassment were outside the scope of his employment.8
To conclude that, as a matter of law, Deputy Nelson’s actions were outside the scope of employment, the majority appears to accept Farmers’ contention that sexually oriented joking and horseplay were typical of the jailhouse environment. The majority asserts, however, that Nelson’s behavior was not horseplay but a serious attempt to sexually solicit and/or assault the women deputies. The majority states the evidence is “undisputed” that Nelson “lewdly propositioned” the women deputies, and that he engaged in “the deliberate targeting of an individual employee by another employee for inappropriate touching and requests for sexual favors” (maj. opn., ante, at p. 997); it reasons that even if sexually oriented joking and horseplay were commonplace at the jail, the evidence “falls far short of establishing that serious misconduct such as asking individual employees for sexual favors and targeting those individuals for inappropriate touching is either typical of or broadly incidental to the operation of a county jail or to the duties and tasks of deputy sheriffs at such a jail” (maj. opn., ante, at p. 1011).
It is by no means certain, however, that Deputy Nelson engaged in “serious misconduct such as asking individual employees for sexual favors *1045and targeting those individuals for inappropriate touching” as claimed by the majority. In its opposition to the County’s motion for summary judgment, Farmers alleged that Deputy Nelson’s conduct was done in a joking manner. As previously noted, the record contains evidence to support Farmers’ allegation; it also contains evidence to the contrary. Thus, whether Nelson was engaged in joking and horseplay is a disputed issue of fact.
As I have noted earlier, a motion for summary judgment may not be granted unless there are no disputed issues of material fact. (Code Civ. Proc., § 437c, subd. (c).) Accordingly, the majority may not base its conclusion that Deputy Nelson acted outside the scope of employment on the “fact” that he targeted the women deputies for sexual favors and inappropriate touching when that “fact” is disputed by Farmers. It is, of course, possible that Deputy Nelson deliberately targeted the women deputies for sexual favors and inappropriate touching, but for purposes of evaluating the County’s motion for summary judgment we must assume that Farmers’ description of Deputy Nelson’s actions is correct. By adopting the County’s characterization of Nelson’s actions, the majority has resolved a disputed issue of fact in the County’s favor. In so doing, the majority errs: disputed issues of fact must be resolved not by an appellate court, whose review is limited to the record of the proceeding in the trial court, but by the trier of fact, whose task it is to weigh the evidence and evaluate the credibility of witnesses at the trial proceedings.
The majority also asserts that Deputy Nelson’s acts of sexual harassment fell outside the scope of employment because they “were motivated for strictly personal reasons unrelated to the guarding of inmates or the performance of any other duty of a deputy sheriff at a county jail.” (Maj. opn., ante, at p. 1007.) The majority, quoting part of a sentence from the lead opinion in John R. v. Oakland Unified School Dist. (1989) 48 Cal.3d 438, 447 [256 Cal.Rptr. 766, 769 P.2d 948], states that an employer is not vicariously liable for the acts of an employee when “ ‘ “it clearly appears that neither directly nor indirectly could [the employee] have been serving his employer.” ’ ” The majority, however, ignores the rest of that sentence, which says, “ ‘where the employee is combining his own business with that of his employer, or attending to both at substantially the same time, no nice inquiry will be made as to which business he was actually engaged in at the time of injury . . . .’” Here, when Deputy Nelson was harassing the female deputies, he was on duty, engaged in his job of guarding the inmates at the jail and “ ‘serving his employer.’ ” The fact that Nelson’s acts of harassment may have benefited himself rather than his employer does not foreclose the possibility that he was acting within the scope of his employment. As this *1046court pointed out in Perez v. Van Groningen & Sons, Inc., supra, 41 Cal.3d at page 969: “There is no requirement that an employee’s act benefit an employer for respondeat superior to apply.” (See also Mary M. v. City of Los Angeles, supra, 54 Cal.3d at pp. 218-219 [To determine scope of employment, “it is necessary to examine the employee’s conduct as a whole, not simply the tortious act itself.”].)
To bolster its conclusion that Deputy Nelson’s conduct was outside the scope of employment, the majority cites case authority from nine states*’ holding acts of sexual harassment to be outside the scope of employment. (Maj. opn., ante, at pp. 1017-1018.) These cases, however, are of little persuasive value here, because almost all of them were decided in jurisdictions that apply the “motive” test in determining whether an employee’s act is within the scope of employment. This test, as mentioned earlier, was discarded in California half a century ago. (Rodgers v. Kemper Constr. Co., supra, 50 Cal.App.3d at p. 621.) Although the motive of an employee is relevant in determining whether the relationship between the actionable conduct and the employment is sufficiently close to arise within the scope of employment, it is not dispositive. Rather, as I have pointed out previously, under California law the relevant inquiry is whether, in light of all the circumstances, the employee’s conduct “is not so unusual or startling that it would seem unfair to include the loss resulting from it among other costs of the employer’s business.” (Perez v. Van Groningen & Sons, Inc., supra, 41 Cal.3d at p. 968.)
Here, the evidence that Farmers presented in support of its motion for summary judgment, and in opposition to the County’s motion for summary judgment, gives rise to a triable issue of fact with regard to whether Deputy Nelson acted within the scope of employment when he sexually harassed Deputies Bates, Daugherty, and Murphy. I therefore disagree with the majority’s holding that, as a matter of law, Deputy Nelson’s conduct was outside the scope of his employment.
III
I now turn to Justice Mosk’s dissenting view, with which I disagree, that as a matter of law Deputy Nelson’s conduct fell within the scope of his employment.
Justice Mosk cites general surveys showing that sexual harassment is common in “traditionally male workplaces, and specifically in county jails, that have recently been integrated by sex.“ (Dis. opn. of Justice Mosk, ante, at p. 1029, italics omitted.) Justice Mosk then observes: “[M]en employed in *1047a traditionally male setting may perceive women entering their workplace as threatening either their job security or their self-esteem and may use sexual harassment as a means to resist the intrusion.” (Id. at p. 1030.) I have no quarrel with that observation. If sexual harassment resulting from male resentment of women performing jobs previously held by men is neither unusual nor startling in a particular enterprise, then it would indeed be proper to conclude that sexual harassment of this nature arises, as a matter of law, within the scope of employment. I question, however, Justice Mosk’s reliance on the surveys in question to conclude that in this case Deputy Nelson’s conduct fell within the scope of his employment. I see two problems with that approach.
First, Farmers does not assert that Deputy Nelson’s conduct arose from resentment of the fact that women deputies had been given a work assignment previously held only by male deputies. Rather, Farmers argues that Nelson’s sexually oriented joking and “horseplay” constituted common behavior at the jail. Absent a claim by Farmers that Deputy Nelson’s behavior stemmed from resentment of the integration of the workforce at the jail, general surveys or studies showing that such resentment causes some male employees to engage in acts of harassment are of little relevance in this case.
Second, in determining whether the trial court in this case properly granted the County’s motion for summary judgment, this court should not rely on general surveys or studies that were not considered by the trial court and are not a part of the appellate record; instead, our task is to examine the record to determine the existence of triable issues of fact. As I noted earlier, a motion for summary judgment may be granted only when “there is no triable issue as to one or more material facts.” (Code Civ. Proc., § 437c, subd. (c).) Here, Farmers asserts that Deputy Nelson’s behavior was typical of the jailhouse environment. The County, however, denies that. Although the evidence may support a finding by the trier of fact that Nelson’s conduct arose in the scope of employment, it would be improper for this court to conclude as a matter of law that the County cannot prevail on its assertion that he was not engaged in typical jailhouse behavior.
IV
It cannot be said that sexual harassment is part of an employee’s job description, or that it advances the employer’s interests. It does not follow from this observation, however, that such conduct automatically falls outside the scope of employment. Nor does the prevalence of sexual harassment in certain work environments automatically establish that such conduct is within the scope of employment.
*1048Instead, whether an employee’s acts of harassment fall within the scope of employment should be decided on a case-by-case basis, by closely examining the nature of the conduct and its relationship to the employer’s enterprise. Under California law, the pertinent inquiry is whether, in the context of a particular enterprise, the conduct is so unusual or startling that it would be unfair to burden the employer with payment of damages resulting from the employee’s conduct. Often, as in this case, the evidence relevant to that determination (which includes evidence not only of the employee’s conduct but also of the workplace context in which it occurred) will be in dispute. In those situations, as in this one, the resolution of those factual disputes, and the ultimate decision as to whether the acts of harassment are linked closely enough to the enterprise so as to fall within the scope of employment, must be left to the trier of fact that hears the evidence.
For this reason, I would reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeal and direct that court to order the trial court to deny the motions for summary judgment made by both Farmers and the County.

The women deputies’ suit against the County for sex discrimination proceeded to trial (at which Deputy Nelson did not testify). Although the jury returned large verdicts in favor 6f each of the deputies—it awarded Bates $400,000, Daugherty $183,000, and Murphy $1.6 million (reduced by the trial court to $700,000)—a substantial portion of those awards probably arose from sexual harassment and retaliatory conduct by officers other than Deputy Nelson. The deputies’ complaint alleged that after they reported Deputy Nelson’s conduct toward them, they were subjected to a hostile work environment that included ostracism and derisive comments by other officers, attempts to intimidate Deputy Bates into changing her testimony, and denial of Deputy Murphy’s requests for transfer to another facility. Deputy Murphy's principal allegations of sexual harassment were against another deputy, Sergeant David Pascual, rather than Deputy Nelson. In addition, Murphy alleged that the County conspired with the Deputy Sheriffs’ Association to deny her maternity benefits. (The jury’s verdict did not specify the conduct on which the awards were based.)

Both parties submitted, in support of their respective motions for summary judgment, the arbitrator’s opinion deciding Deputy Nelson’s administrative appeal of the 14-day suspension ordered by the County; and both relied on the opinion’s summary of the evidence presented at the arbitration hearing, as well as the arbitrator’s findings of facts, as a substitute for the actual transcripts of the hearing. (Although the parties submitted partial transcripts, they comprised only a small portion of the record of the hearing.) It is questionable whether a party may rely on an arbitrator’s report for this purpose (see Code Civ. Proc., § 437c, subd. (d)), but here each party has waived any possible objection to the other’s reliance on the arbitrator’s report (ibid.).

In the complaint filed by the women deputies in federal court, Deputy Bates alleged that after she reported that Deputy Nelson had harassed her, Nelson made obscene telephone calls to her home. Farmers does not contend that these calls were typical jailhouse behavior, or that they were made in the scope of Nelson’s employment.

The majority repeatedly describes Deputy Nelson’s conduct as acts of harassment. But Deputy Nelson, although conceding that he engaged in the conduct attributed to him, denies that his conduct constituted harassment. For the sake of convenience, and because there appears to be no dispute that Nelson’s comments and unconsented touchings were resented by the female deputies who were subjected to them, I shall at times also use the word “harassment” to describe Nelson’s conduct.

Unless otherwise stated, all further statutory references are to the Government Code.

There is an important exception to this rule. A public entity need not provide for the defense of an employee, and need not reimburse the employee for the amount of any judgment or settlement, or for attorney fees, costs, and expenses, if the employee’s act, although within the scope of employment, was motivated by “actual fraud, corruption or actual malice . . . .” (§§ 825.2, subd. (b), 995.2, subd. (b), 996.4.) Because the County does not contend that Deputy Nelson’s acts of harassment were motivated by “actual fraud, corruption, or actual malice,” this court need not determine whether the exception just mentioned is applicable here.

In her concurring opinion, Justice Werdegar argues that allowing the scope-of-employment determination to turn on whether Deputy Nelson’s behavior was typical behavior at the County’s jails would lead to the incongruous result that sexual misconduct at county jails would be within the scope of employment in some counties but not others, depending on the frequency of such misconduct in the individual county. I question whether this result is as incongruous as Justice Werdegar suggests (see Hodges v. Workers’ Comp. Appeals Bd. (1978) 82 Cal.App.3d 894, 904 [147 Cal.Rptr. 546] [stating that an employee engaging in horseplay is still within the scope of employment for workers’ compensation purposes if “the particular horseplay involved was engaged in so frequently and habitually that it had become customary and might fairly be said to be a regular incident of the employment”]); but even assuming that it is incongruous, the only way to prove the prevalence of sexual misconduct at jails in *1044general is by examining its frequency at particular jails, and the only evidence submitted by the parties here relates to those particular jails operated by County. My references to that evidence are not intended to imply that only such evidence is relevant and that evidence regarding the prevalence of similar misconduct at jails in other counties should not be considered in determining whether the conduct in question may fairly be regarded as typical of or broadly incidental to the “particular enterprise” in question, here the operation of county jails. Nor do I suggest that in other situations, not involving horseplay, a factual showing of the frequency of the behavior would be necessary to establish that the behavior was within the scope of employment.

Farmers argues that even assuming Deputy Nelson’s acts of harassment were not horseplay, they constituted “quid pro quo” harassment, that is, an attempt to use work-related threats to obtain sexual favors, and thus fell within the scope of employment. Farmers contends that quid pro quo harassment is so closely linked to the employment relationship that it arises within the scope of employment even though it is not common jailhouse behavior. But the overwhelming majority of Nelson’s conduct was not quid pro quo harassment, regardless of Nelson’s intentions (the sole exception being a comment by Nelson to Deputy Bates that she could get off training by “giving [him] head”). Accordingly, I do not address whether quid pro quo harassment may arise within the scope of employment.
Farmers also contends that because sexual harassment is “a persistent problem in the American workplace,” all sexual harassment occurring in the workplace is neither startling nor unexpected, and thus is within the scope of employment. By contrast, an amicus curiae brief filed in support of the County by 93 California cities and towns argues that because sexual harassment “has a purely personal origin and goal,” it never falls within the scope of employment. I find neither contention persuasive: the question whether sexual harassment arises within the scope of employment should be decided on a case-by-case basis.