Facts

Tri Minh Huynh worked for Walmart's e-commerce division as its Director of Business Development Marketplace Business. Huynh filed a lawsuit against Wal-Mart Associates Inc., for alleged violations of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, California Whistleblower Protection Act, and wrongful termination. Walmart sought summary judgement.

PLAINTIFF'S CONTENTIONS: During his employment, Huynh observed and reported to supervisors what he believed were violations of the law by Walmart's internal control. Huynh continued to report these perceived violations and other concerns to his supervisors until he was eventually terminated as part of a layoff cycle. Plaintiff contended that he orally raised whistleblower concerns to his supervisor in a meeting before defendant decided to lay plaintiff off. Plaintiff also claimed that there was a causal connection between his firing and him raising his concerns to about defendant's unlawful conduct because the adverse action took place shortly after the conversation was taken.

DEFENDANT'S CONTENTIONS: Defendant contended that plaintiff was a poor-performing employee whose inclusion in the instant round of layoffs was unconnected to any whistleblowing. Defendant also claimed that a Walmart ethics and compliance manager expressed to human resources the possibility of terminating plaintiff after he was accused of sexual harassment and placed on a permanent media ban for making unauthorized statements to the media. Defendant also claimed that other employees raised similar concerns to some of those raised by plaintiff as a purported whistleblower but were not terminated because instead defendant took active steps to fix the reported problems.

Result

The court granted defendant's motion for summary judgment.