Martin v. Regents of the Univ. of Cal.

DISCRIMINATION

Martin v. Regents of the Univ. of Cal.,No. C054205 ( Cal. Ct. App. August 12, 2008)

The California Court of Appeal, Third District, affirmed a lower court’s decision to grant summary judgment in favor of a hospital accused of gender discrimination, retaliation and harassment by a female physician. Although several complaints had been filed against the physician based on her inability to work with others, she claimed that the hospital had failed to renew her contract due to the discriminatory motives of her supervisor. The court concluded that the physician had not met her burden of presenting evidence that demonstrated a reasonable inference that the action taken against her by her supervisor was motivated by discrimination. While the physician was able to provide several declarations from other female employees that the same supervisor treated women more harshly than men, this evidence, without any showing that this treatment resulted in adverse employment actions, was too speculative and attenuated to create an inference that the action taken against her was motivated by discrimination.