Nina Xiaoyan Li v. Merck & Co., Inc., et al.

CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedNovember 7, 2025
Docket4:23-cv-03347
StatusUnknown

This text of Nina Xiaoyan Li v. Merck & Co., Inc., et al. (Nina Xiaoyan Li v. Merck & Co., Inc., et al.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Nina Xiaoyan Li v. Merck & Co., Inc., et al., (N.D. Cal. 2025).

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 7 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 8 9 NINA XIAOYAN LI, Case No. 23-cv-03347-JSW Plaintiff, 10 ORDER GRANTING IN PART AND 11 v. DENYING IN PART DEFENDANTS’ MOTION FOR SUMMARY 12 MERCK & CO., INC., et al., JUDGMENT AND DENYING PLAINTIFF’S MOTION FOR 13 Defendants. SUMMARY JUDGMENT Re: Dkt. Nos. 147, 152 14 15 Now before the Court are the motion for summary judgment filed by Defendants Merck & 16 Co., Inc., MRL San Francisco LLC, Merck Sharp & Dohme, LLC, and Merck Sharp & Dohme, 17 Corp. (collectively “Merck” or “Defendants”) and the cross-motion for summary judgment filed 18 by Plaintiff Nina Li. Merck moves for summary judgment on Plaintiff’s second, third, and fourth 19 causes of action and their own first and second causes of action. Plaintiff moves for summary 20 judgment on Merck’s counterclaims for misappropriation of trade secrets and breach of contract. 21 BACKGROUND 22 Plaintiff worked as a scientist at Merck from 2006 to 2023. Her claims of discrimination 23 and retaliation relate only to the latter period of her employment, from July 2020 to March 2023, 24 when she was supervised by Alexander Loktev. Plaintiff reported Loktev for alleged bias against 25 one of her mentees, James Zhang, which she claims lead to Zhang’s decision to quit working at 26 Merck. Although she had previously participated in interviewing prospective candidates, Plaintiff 27 1 exclusion was based on racial motives, but Loktev claimed he could no longer trust her when she 2 disparaged Merck’s program to a candidate. After Zhang left, Plaintiff alleges that she was no 3 longer assigned the role as a mentor. Loktev claimed she was criticized as a mentor and had not 4 been doing a good job previously with Zhang. Plaintiff also claims that, after Zhang left, Loktev 5 began to deprive her of support and forced her to get resources from other scientists or sites to 6 advance her projects. Plaintiff also claims that Loktev began to remove her from high-profile 7 studies and teams. Loktev claims that, during this time, Plaintiff excluded him from her team’s 8 regular meetings and updates. At the end of 2021 and for the first time in her career at Merck, 9 Plaintiff received an “improvement required” evaluation from her supervisor, in response to which 10 Plaintiff submitted a detailed rebuttal listing her various accomplishments. Plaintiff alleges that 11 the poor evaluation occurred 10 weeks after she reported discrimination and retaliation by Loktev 12 to HR and two months after her March 2022 report of discrimination. 13 In early March 2022, after the poor evaluation, Plaintiff reported to HR Director Freishtat 14 that she was being subjected to retaliation and requested a third-party review of materials relating 15 to the facts underlying both the performance review and her allegations of retaliation in being 16 dropped from interviews, high-profile projects, and being denied resources for her work. 17 In August 2022, Merck’s Office of Ethics (“OOE”) opened an investigation in response to 18 Plaintiff’s reports of retaliation. On November 1, 2022, Loktev issued a “Performance 19 Expectations Memo” threatening Plaintiff’s termination on the basis of reported poor 20 communication and leadership behavior. Plaintiff alleges that this adverse action occurred two 21 months after Loktev was interviewed by the OOE as the subject of Plaintiff’s discrimination and 22 retaliation complaint. Again, in his year-end review of Plaintiff, Loktev evaluated Plaintiff as 23 “Improvement Required.” Plaintiff alleges that Loktev overlooked and misrepresented the 24 feedback from stakeholders and solicited input from non-stakeholders as well. Merck’s OOE 25 investigated Plaintiff’s three complaints of discrimination and retaliation and found them each 26 unfounded. 27 On March 9, 2023, Plaintiff reported to Loktev’s office for her year-end review. When she 1 she was escorted briefly to her desk and then down to the lobby to exit the building. After her 2 termination, there is evidence in the record that Plaintiff continued to discuss issues with Merck 3 employees about her own employment contentions as well as data generated by Merck. 4 The Court shall address other additional facts as necessary in the remainder of this order. 5 ANALYSIS 6 A. Legal Standard on Motion for Summary Judgment. 7 Summary judgment is warranted “if the movant shows that there is no genuine dispute as 8 to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 9 56(a). Material facts are those which may affect the outcome of the case. Anderson v. Liberty 10 Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248 (1986). A dispute is genuine if there is sufficient evidence for a 11 reasonable jury to find for the nonmoving party. Id. at 248-49. “The trial court’s inquiry is not 12 whether a reasonable trier of fact is likely to find in favor of the opposing party, but whether it 13 could do so.” Hawkins v. Kroger Co., 512 F. Supp. 3d 1079, 1085 (S.D. Cal. 2021) (citing 14 McIndoe v. Huntington Ingalls, 817 F.3d 1170, 1176 (9th Cir. 2016)). 15 The Court views the evidence in the light most favorable to, and makes all reasonable 16 inferences in favor of, the nonmoving party. Tolan v. Cotton, 572 U.S. 650, 656-57 (2014). The 17 Court does not weigh conflicting evidence or make credibility determinations. Zetwick v. Cnty. of 18 Yolo, 850 F.3d 436, 441 (9th Cir. 2017). 19 The party moving for summary judgment bears the initial burden of identifying those 20 portions of the pleadings, discovery, and affidavits which demonstrate the absence of a genuine 21 issue of material fact. Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 323 (1986). If the moving party 22 meets its burden, the nonmoving party must then go beyond the pleadings and, by its own 23 affidavits or exhibits, demonstrate a genuine issue of fact remains for trial. Id. 24 B. Triable Facts Remain as to Discrimination Claim. 25 California has adopted a three-stage burden-shifting test for trying claims of 26 discrimination. Guz v. Bechtel Nat’l, Inc., 24 Cal. 4th 317, 354 (2000) (citing, inter alia, Texas 27 Dep’t of Cmty. Affairs v. Burdine, 450 U.S. 248 (1981)). Under this framework, a plaintiff must 1 discrimination, a plaintiff must allege (1) membership in a protected group; (2) qualification for 2 the job in question; (3) an adverse employment action; and (4) circumstances that support an 3 inference of discrimination. Id. at 355; see also McDonnell Douglas v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 802 4 (1973). “The burden of establishing a prima facie case of disparate treatment is not onerous.” 5 Burdine, 450 U.S. at 253. Actual proof of discrimination is not required to establish a prima facie 6 case; plaintiff must merely raise an inference that discrimination has occurred. See Warren v. City 7 of Carlsbad, 58 F.3d 439, 442 (9th Cir. 1995) (holding that even a “de minimus´ showing is 8 sufficient to establish a prima facie case); Lowe v. City of Monrovia, 775 F.2d 998, 1005 (9th Cir.

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Bluebook (online)
Nina Xiaoyan Li v. Merck & Co., Inc., et al., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nina-xiaoyan-li-v-merck-co-inc-et-al-cand-2025.