New England Biz Law Update
When plaintiff Chad Bustos accepted the role of chief marketing officer at a luxury Southern California destination, he expected to finish out his career in a place that prized excellence.
What he says he found instead was a culture of hostility toward working mothers and retaliation when he tried to stand up for his team.
In a complaint filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, Bustos alleges he was terminated in August 2024 for opposing the resort president’s discriminatory and aggressive treatment of his all-female marketing team.
The lawsuit names JC Resorts LLC, CoralTree Hospitality, Lowe Enterprises, and Terranea Resort as defendants.
Pregnancy questions and a pattern of bias
According to the complaint, tensions began in early 2024 when a pregnant employee mentioned her upcoming maternity leave during a team meeting. In response, Terranea’s president allegedly stood up and interrogated each woman in the room, pointing and asking, “Are you pregnant?”
The complaint details a pattern of hostile behavior toward employees with caregiving responsibilities, including questioning a woman’s ability to take a promotion due to motherhood, scrutinizing employees via security cameras to monitor work hours, and sudden enforcement of an unwritten 8-to-6 office schedule that made daycare pickups impossible. When the plaintiff pushed back, advocating for flexibility and fairness, he claims the retaliation escalated.
He was fired shortly after confronting management and corroborating a team member’s HR complaint. The lawsuit also alleges that Terranea failed to investigate or intervene, and that higher-level owners and operators, including CoralTree and JC Resorts, condoned the behavior because the resort remained profitable.
Legal protections against retaliation and discrimination
Generally, employers may not inquire about an employee’s private health information, including whether they are pregnant.
Comments that show hostility toward pregnancy or parental leave can support claims of sex discrimination under federal laws like Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, as well as various state and local protections.
The plaintiff claims his firing violated California’s whistleblower protection laws, which – like similar laws in many states – protect employees who report or refuse to participate in conduct they believe to be unlawful.
He also alleges discrimination under California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), which, in line with broader anti-discrimination frameworks, prohibits employers from retaliating against workers based on their perceived association with members of a protected class – in this case, women who were pregnant or recently on leave.
