In March 2009, two claimants, both Southeast Asian American employees of Hmong descent, were terminated by their employer, Farmers Insurance Exchange for improper coding. However, they claimed that similar action was not taken against employees of a different race for the same conduct. The claimants brought the matter to the attention of plaintiff U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process. However, after a Caucasian employee testified before the EEOC during its investigation, that employee was also terminated in 2012. Thus, in 2013, the EEOC, on behalf of the Hmong claimants and Caucasian claimant, sued Farmers Insurance Exchange. The EEOC alleged that Farmers’ actions constituted discrimination and retaliation in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Specifically, the EEOC claimed that Farmers Insurance Exchange discriminated against the Hmong claimants by wrongfully terminating their employment since the company did not use similar action against other races for performing the same conduct. In addition, the EEOC claimed the company terminated a white employee in 2012 in retaliation for having testified before the EEOC during its investigation., The claimants sought recovery of unspecified damages as a result of their wrongful termination.