Meza-Perez v. Sbarro LLC

District Court, D. Nevada·Decided April 16, 2021·No. 2:19-cv-00373·Unknown

Opinion

1 PKAETLRSEICYK E H. S. THEICGKASL, LE,S EQS.Q, B., aBr a#r 0#4 1643227 9 2 LITTLER MENDELSON, P.C. 3960 Howard Hughes Parkway 3 Suite 300 Las Vegas, NV 89169-5937 4 Telephone: 702.862.8800 Fax No.: 702.862.8811 5 Email: phicks@littler.com kstegall@littler.com 6 7 Attorneys for Defendants SBARRO, LLC dba SBARRO PIZZA, SBARRO, INC. dba 8 SBARRO PIZZA 9

10 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 11 DISTRICT OF NEVADA 12

13 SANDRA M. MEZA-PEREZ, 14 Plaintiff, Case No. 2:19-cv-00373-APG-NJK 15 vs. JOINT PRETRIAL ORDER 16 SBARRO LLC dba SBARRO PIZZA, a foreign limited liability company, SBARRO, 17 INC. dba SBARRO PIZZA, a foreign corporation, ZACHARY CEBALLES, an 18 individual , and JESUS ALATORRE, an individual, 19 Defendants. 20 21 After pretrial proceedings in this case, 22 IT IS ORDERED: 23 I. 24 NATURE OF ACTION AND RELIEF SOUGHT 25 This is an action for civil damages brought by Plaintiff Sandra M. Meza-Perez (“Plaintiff”), 26 under Title VII, the FLSA, analogous Nevada law, and various Nevada tort claims against Defendants 27 Sbarro LLC and Sbarro, Inc. (“Sbarro”); Zachary Ceballes (“Ceballes”); Efrain Hernandez 28 1 (“Hernandez”); and Jesus Alatorre (“Alatorre”) (collectively “Defendants”). 2 Consistent with this Court’s Order granting in part Defendants’ Motion for Summary 3 Judgment, the claims proceeding to trial are: battery, false imprisonment, assault, intentional infliction 4 of emotional distress, and negligent infliction of emotional distress against Ceballes in his individual 5 capacity; and sexual harassment/hostile work environment and retaliation against Sbarro. See (ECF 6 No. 181). Pursuant to this Order, Hernandez has effectively been dismissed from the lawsuit. See (id.). 7 Plaintiff is seeking monetary damages, statutory damages under Title VII and Nevada law, 8 damages for her tort claims, emotional distress damages, attorney fees and lost wages and other 9 economic and noneconomic damages under Nevada and Federal Law. 10 CONTENTION OF PARTIES 11 PLAINTIFF’S CONTENTIONS 12 Defendant Ceballes hired Plaintiff, her family members and friend to work at Sbarro. Plaintiff 13 was forced to engage in coerced quid pro quo sexual conduct with Defendant Ceballes, the General 14 Manager of one of the most profitable Sbarro stores in Las Vegas and Plaintiff’s direct supervisor, 15 while working at Sbarro. 16 Specifically, Plaintiff alleges that Defendant Ceballes raped her in the walk-in cooler and was 17 forced to have oral sex in the office and was harassed during store hours over a period of 18 approximately seven months while simultaneously threatening to terminate Plaintiff and deport her and 19 other members of her family that he had hired, and continued to do so even upon her transfer to 20 Bally’s Sbarros. Plaintiff further alleges that Defendant Ceballes began sexually harassing her by 21 raping her and forcing her to have oral sex after she engaged in the protected activity of informing him 22 of sexual harassment by Defendants Hernandez and Alatorre. Therefore, Ceballes retaliated against 23 Plaintiff by forcing her to have sex with him, and later transferring her to another store, where he knew 24 that she was relegated to the graveyard shift, in retaliation for refusing to engage in forced sex, sex and 25 oral sex. In December 2016, Sandra was put on notice that she was going to be transferred to the 26 Bally’s Sbarros location where Sheldon Stern was the General Manager. 27 Plaintiff unequivocally contends that her attempted and actual complaints of sexual harassment

28 1 A Clerk’s Entry of Default was entered against Alatorre on October 22, 2019, (ECF No. 82). 1 to Sbarro went ignored, and that she suffered a tangible adverse employment action at the hands of 2 Ceballes, her supervisor and General Manager was known for selling illegal products such as jello 3 shots and was known to be a sexual predator; and, therefore, Sbarro is liable for violations of Title VII 4 and analogous state law for sexual harassment, creating a hostile work environment and retaliating 5 against Plaintiff. The adverse employment action had a causal link to the protected activity, thereby 6 substantiating Plaintiff’s retaliation claim. In addition, the Ellerth/Fragher affirmative defense does 7 not apply because Sbarro (1) failed to exercise reasonable care to prevent or correct the harassing 8 behavior and (2) Plaintiff exercised reasonable care in taking advantage of preventive or corrective 9 opportunities by reporting the harassing conduct to her immediate supervisors on multiple occasions 10 and (3) Plaintiff reported this conduct to the Nevada Equal Rights Commission who subsequently put 11 Sbarro on notice again. 12 Any alleged failures or delays by Plaintiff to report Ceballes’ misconduct was due to Plaintiff’s 13 fear that Sbarro would contact Immigration Customs Enforcement in an effort to have her deported, as 14 Defendant Ceballes had threatened to do on several occasions if Plaintiff refused to engage in the 15 heinous sexual acts against her will. Plaintiff is entitled to all relief sought pursuant to law and 16 equity, based upon the operative pleadings, and subject to proof at trial.2 17 DEFENDANTS’ CONTENTIONS 18 Sbarro denies the allegations in their entirety and Plaintiff’s version of the facts. Specifically, 19 Sbarro denies that it violated Title VII or analogous Nevada law in creating a hostile work 20 environment because the Ellerth/Faragher affirmative defense applies. Moreover, Defendant contends 21 that Plaintiff did not suffer an adverse employment action, and even if she did, it had no causal link to 22 her alleged protected activity, dismantling her retaliation claim. 23 Ceballes also denies the allegations against him and Plaintiff’s version of the facts. 24 Specifically, Ceballes maintains that the relationship between he and Plaintiff was completely 25 consensual, and Plaintiff’s tort allegations are purely fabricated. 26 / / / 27 / / /

28 2 Plaintiff reserves the right to seek leave to amend the pleadings to conform to proof at trial. 1 II. 2 STATEMENT OF JURISDICTION 3 Jurisdiction over Plaintiff’s Title VII claim is proper pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1331 and 1343(a) 4 because the lawsuit asserts claims under federal law and seeks to recover damages and equitable relief 5 under a federal civil rights statute. Supplemental jurisdiction over Plaintiff’s Nevada state law claims 6 is proper under 28 U.S.C. §1367(a) because the state law claim is so related to the federal claims that 7 they form part of the same case or controversy. 8 III.

9 THE FOLLOWING FACTS ARE ADMITTED BY THE PARTIES AND REQUIRE NO PROOF 10 The parties have agreed to the following stipulated facts: 11 1. Plaintiff and her family members and friend obtained employment at Sbarro in 2016. 12 2. Plaintiff initially worked at Sbarro’s Monte Carlo location in the role of cook. 13 3. Ceballes worked for Sbarro in the role of General Manager at the Monte Carlo location 14 during the same time that Plaintiff worked at that location. 15 4. Ceballes hired Plaintiff, 16 5. Shortly after Plaintiff started working at the Monte Carlo location, Ceballes and 17 Plaintiff engaged in sexual activities solely during store hours in the walk-in cooler of the store and in 18 the Ceballes’ Manager’s Office. 19 6. In early January of 2017, Plaintiff was transferred to the Bally’s location from the 20 Monte Carlo location. 21 7. On March 9, 2017, Plaintiff contacted Sbarro’s Human Resources department and 22 spoke to Dana Dorado (“Dorado”) to complain about not getting enough hours to work and about 23 employees stealing at the Monte Carlo location. 24 8.

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