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Sanchez v. Children's Hospital and Health Center9/14/2005
NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS
California Rules of Court, rule 977(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 977(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 977.
This employment discrimination action was brought by Teresa A. Sanchez after she was terminated in a reduction in force from her administrative assistant position at Children's Hospital and Health Center (Children's) when she was 61 years old and nine months from eligibility for retirement. The trial court granted summary judgment against Sanchez on her claims that Children's terminated her on the basis of age, violated the Fair Employment and Housing Act, wrongfully terminated her in violation in public policy, and intentionally and negligently inflicted emotional distress. We conclude Sanchez has not identified evidence allowing her to establish that she was terminated because of her age rather than, as explained by Children's, because her position was eliminated in its ongoing reduction in force when her various job duties were reassigned. Accordingly, we affirm.
FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
Since at least 1995 Children's has been experiencing financial difficulties that it has addressed by identifying inefficient operations and noncore staff functions for elimination, resulting in ongoing reductions in force. As part of this process, Sanchez was first terminated in 1997 when her position was eliminated. She applied for several new positions at Children's and was eventually rehired. Sanchez's new position was eliminated in 2002, and she was once again terminated. Sanchez's second termination is the subject of this lawsuit.
The decisionmaking process behind Sanchez's 2002 termination is a central focus on appeal. Children's explains that in early 2002, managers were encouraged to look for cost-saving measures in their areas, and Sanchez's supervisor, Matt Niedzwiecki, took stock of possible functions under his supervision that could be eliminated, settling on Sanchez's position as a candidate for elimination.
Sanchez was employed doing secretarial work for the Patient and Family Services department and was the only employee in that department. Niedzwiecki perceived that Sanchez's most time-consuming duty was administering a patient survey that was then compiled and statistically analyzed by an outside company at the annual cost of $30,000 to $45,000. In considering cost-saving measures, Niedzwiecki determined that the outside company's survey-related work could be performed by Children's own Outcomes Center and that Sanchez's survey-related tasks could be reassigned to the Outcomes Center as well. With this reassignment, much of Sanchez's workload would be eliminated.
Sanchez's remaining duties were (1) administering donor accounts that provided funding for hygiene kits, calling cards, bus tokens and other incidentals to indigent families of hospitalized children and (2) providing secretarial support for the translation services function. Niedzwiecki believed he could reassign the administration of the donor accounts to his own secretary. He also believed that Sanchez's work for translation services could be eliminated due to the recent decentralization of that function and the ability of the translation coordinator to cover any remaining unmet secretarial needs.
Senior management approved Niedzwiecki's proposal to cut costs by eliminating Sanchez's position. Because Sanchez's position was eliminated, she was terminated in the reduction in force. Sanchez was notified of her ter
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