I was trying to figure out why the company filed this appeal, which it lost. And I think, maybe, that I have at least a possible (partial?) explanation.
It's a fairly typical employment action. The company, The RealReal, hired a VP of Human Resources, Elizabeth Taska, whom it then fired around a year later. Ms. Taska then sued the company for wrongful termination and retaliation. There was an arbitration provision in the employment contract, and the case goes to arbitration, which the employer wins.
So far, totally routine.
In the final arbitration briefs, both sides say they're going to move for costs and attorney's fees if they win, which is not unusual. In the arbitrator's award, after finding for the company, the arbitrator expressly holds that the company is not entitled to a fee award. So end of story.
Again, not unusual.
What's a little weird is that, a couple weeks later, the company asks the arbitrator to reconsider, and asks for fees again. At which point the arbitrator changes their mind, and awards the employer around $73,000 in fees, holding that "“the repeated and substantial failure of [Ms. Taska] to testify truthfully” rendered the conduct of the arbitration “unreasonable, meritless, frivolous and vexatious . . . .”"
Both sides then file in the trial court -- the employer to confirm the award, and Ms. Taska to strike the fee award -- and the trial court agrees with Ms. Taska, holding that the trial court lost jurisdiction to award the fees because it was over 30 days after the original final award (e.g., the one that denied fees).
Which, by the way, is totally right. That's what the law says. That's clearly the right result. As the Court of Appeal unanimously concludes.
What confused me is why the employer filed the appeal. First off, the trial court was right, so it's a waste of time. But also, look, it's an employment dispute. Who cares if there's a $73,000 fee award against the plaintiff? She's not likely to pay it anyway? Why waste the money chasing it? (Especially when, as here, you're likely to lose the appeal anyway -- and might well spend more in legal fees on the appeal even if you won.)
Now, I get it, sometimes you just hate the plaintiff, or are vindictive, or want to "strike back" and make their lives miserable. Sometimes litigation isn't just an economic transaction. Sometimes it's personal.
So I figured that something along those lines might well be happening here.
Still, a little unusual.
But then I did a quick Google search to see if there was anything about this case, or the plainttff, in the news.
I'm not saying that it's necessarily the same person. But the plaintiff's name here is Elizabeth Taska, and the litigation was in San Francisco, and there's quite a lot of press about a "Beth Taska" up there, largely as the result of an allegedly racist incident at a public park in San Francisco, which you can read about in substantial detail (as well as see the video) here.
An incident which, perhaps coincidentally (?), occurred on July 4, 2020, which was exactly five days after the arbitrator's corrected final award in the litigation awarding $73,000 in fees against her for her alleged "repeated and substantial failure to testify truthfully" in the arbitration.
There's nothing in the briefs (not surprisingly) that mentions the racist incident, and the name of the alleged perpetrator there ("Beth Taska") and the plaintiff here ("Elizabeth Taska") is slightly different. But they both (1) appear to be in San Francisco, (2) are listed as senior human resource officers, and (3) at least here, "Beth Taska" is listed as a former employee of The RealReal (the defendant here) as well as Topa Equities and 24 Hour Fitness, which lots of news stories mention were the former employers of the alleged racist.
Again, I'm not saying that it's necessarily the same person. But if it was the same person, that might be one possible explanation for why The RealReal was perhaps, in part, fairly aggressive (IMHO) about trying to claw back the $73,000 fee award against Ms. Taska that the trial court had (rightly) vacated.
Because it was more than a little bit miffed, and wanted to impose some extra pain. Even if it lost.
