News Notes: County Not Co-Employer Of Courtroom Employee

When court secretary Alice Jones sued the Los Angeles Superior Court and the County of Los Angeles for harassment, the county asked to be let out of the lawsuit, arguing that it wasn’t her employer—the Superior Court was. A California appellate court agreed, ruling that the Superior Court was Jones’ sole employer because it appointed Jones and exclusively controlled her duties. That she got county-drawn paychecks and certain benefits that county employees received wasn’t sufficient to find that the county was her employer for purposes of liability for workplace harassment.