Legal Question in Employment Law in California

Hello,

This past winter I was an employee at a ski resort in California. I taught both ski and snowboard. I taught a snowboard lesson on January 17. Weekends after that I taught skiing. When I went to teach snowboarding on February 21, I found my snowboard had been stolen. I filed a police report. The head of ski school told me they would replace my equipment if not found by the end of the season on April 26. I sent an email on January 17 memorializing my meeting with ski school head. Snowboard was never found. Ski school tried to offer and unload a used demo snowboard that was not comparable to my stolen snowboard. They are now not going to replace my snowboard. This locker room was rampant with theft, I know two people who had equipment stolen after mine. In employee orientation management never described the problems with theft nor did they notify employees during the season that theft was occurring from this locker room to give employees the opportunity to take their equipment home. Locker room could only be entered by a key code entry pad. Since this is a small claims court case. We had to sign an employee agreement prior to working to not hold the ski resort liable for any theft of our equipment. I am going to file a lawsuit in small claims court under the following theories:

1) Breach of oral contract to replace my equipment.

2) Negligence by employer for not disclosing during orientation that theft has occurred many times from this locker room in the past.

3) Negligence for failure to disclose to employees the theft that was occurring during the ski season.

4) Subpoenea the local sheriff department to obtain police reports of all employees who had filed police reports to show proof of on-going theft and for a list of potential witnesses.

What do you think about the layout of my small claims case ? Did I miss anything ? What are the pitfalls with the facts of my case ?

Thanks !


Asked on 6/13/11, 10:38 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
George Shers Law Offices of Georges H. Shers

You have done a very good job in preparing your case.

. You also need to argue that they are estopped from raising the issue of the waiver as they did not provide you with relevant information so it was not a knowing waiver of your rights. There was partial performance as to the oral contract so as to make it binding. The consideration for the oral contract was that you would continue working there. the main issue is that they promised to give you a new board and a reasonable person would assume that it would be of the same quality. They will argue what they offered was. You need to think out what their arguments will be.

Unfortunately, in my experience with SCC, such preparation is often largely ignored and you are given just a short period of time to present your case. If you can, go and watch the SCC judge handle cases.

Read more
Answered on 6/14/11, 7:15 am


Related Questions & Answers

More Labor and Employment Law questions and answers in California