Soldinger v. Northwest Airlines, Inc

In Soldinger v. Northwest Airlines, Inc. (1996) 51 Cal.App.4th 345, the plaintiff filed two charges with the DFEH. The first alleged religious discrimination and wrongful discharge. After the plaintiff was reinstated, she filed a second charge with the DFEH alleging retaliation for filing the first DFEH complaint. Her civil action, filed after the second DFEH charge, included a claim of retaliation for bringing the civil lawsuit. In determining that the trial court had jurisdiction over this second retaliation claim, the court focused on the likely scope of the DFEH investigation: "Even if the second DFEH charge did not specifically include contentions of retaliation based upon filing the civil lawsuit, it did allege defendant retaliated against Soldinger because she had accused defendant of discrimination. Given the facts of this case, DFEH reasonably would have investigated all aspects of Soldinger's claims of retaliation in investigating her second charge. The incidents had either already occurred . . . or were ongoing . . . ." (Soldinger, supra, 51 Cal.App.4th at p. 382.)