Facts

Plaintiffs Edgar and Sonia Ceballos were born in Guatemala and lived in the U.S as lawful residents. In 1999, Sonia Ceballos began working at Westwood Elementary School in Concord, California as an office manager. In 2000, Westwood Elementary hired Edgar Ceballos as a night custodian. In 2005, defendant Jenny Vargas became the principal of Westwood Elementary and subsequently criticized the Ceballoses on their work performance. The Ceballoses disagreed with the criticism and sued Vargas, the Mt. Diablo Unified School District, Public Employees Union, Ron Hansen, and Marc Fabie, who was the director of custodial services for the school district.

Prior to trial, the Public Employees Union and Hansen filed a demurrer which the court sustained without leave to amend. Fabie was also dismissed prior to trial.

PLAINTIFF'S CONTENTIONS:
The plaintiffs argued that they received dissimilar treatment because they were the only foreign-born Hispanic employees at the school.

DEFENDANT'S CONTENTIONS:
The defendants asserted that the criticism was based on plaintiffs' work performance, rather than their race.

Settlement Discussions

The plaintiffs demanded $200,000, which was later increased to $2.58 million. According to defense counsel, the defense offered $10,000 with an indication of $25,000. The plaintiff's counsel disputes this contention.

Damages

The plaintiffs sought between $2.5 million and $25 million.

Injuries

The plaintiffs claimed that they both suffered severe emotional distress. Evidence that Edgar Ceballos suffered a stroke, as a result of the emotional distress, was withheld from the jury.

Result

The jury found in favor of the defense.

Deliberation

half day

Poll

12-0