Since Dec. 26, 2013, plaintiff Felipa Barnes-Guerrero, a registered nurse, began working as a part-time relief nurse for the outpatient procedure area at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. However, she claimed that shortly after she started working in the outpatient procedure area, she began to be discriminated against by her direct supervisor, Noven Lazaro, due to her nationality. Barnes-Guerrero ultimately complained about Lazaro to his supervisor. However, on April 1, 2014, Barnes-Guerrero was notified of her termination. Barnes-Guerrero sued Lazaro and the believe operators of the medical center, the Regents of the University of California and the county of Los Angeles. Barnes-Guerrero alleged that Lazaro’s actions constituted harassment and that the hospital’s operators were liable for the national origin discrimination and retaliation against her. It was ultimately determined that the county was the operator of Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and that the Regents of the University of California was erroneously sued. Thus, the Regents was dismissed from the case. In addition, Barnes-Guerrero’s harassment claim against Lazaro was dismissed prior to trial and, as a result, Lazaro was also dismissed from the case. Thus, the matter proceeded to trial with Barnes-Guerrero’s remaining claims against the county only. Barnes-Guerrero, who is Peruvian, claimed that Lazaro, who is Filipino, discriminated against her because of her race and gave preferential treatment to Filipino staff, to her detriment. Specifically, she claimed that she wasn’t given opportunities like those given to the other staff and that Lazaro sometimes spoke in Tagalog with Filipino staff. She also claimed that Lazaro did not encourage or mentor her. In addition, Barnes-Guerrero claimed that she was terminated in retaliation for complaining about Lazaro to his supervisor. The plaintiff’s nursing expert opined that Barnes-Guerrero was not in a nurturing environment. Defense counsel noted that Barnes-Guerrero was originally hired in October 2013 to work as a part-time relief nurse in the operating room, but that it did not work out. Counsel contended that instead of being terminated then, Barnes-Guerrero was given a second opportunity to work in the medical center’s outpatient procedure area. However, defense counsel contended that despite being given a second chance, there were eight specific incidents involving Barnes-Guerrero, including one incident in the operating room, resulting in patient endangerment and various nursing errors. Counsel argued that those incidents was what caused Barnes-Guerrero to be terminated. In addition, defense counsel noted that the only complaint evidence from Barnes-Guerrero were one or two complaints made against Lazaro for raising his voice at her for allegedly endangering patients. Counsel argued that none of those complaints were because Barnes-Guerrero was Peruvian and that Barnes-Guerrero only claimed that her termination was racially motivated after she was fired., Barnes-Guerrero worked at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center since October 2013. Thus, she claimed that she suffered a loss of earnings from the date of her termination until she began a new position in July 2014. She also claimed that she suffered emotional distress and anxiety as a result of her treatment and termination. However, she did not see an attorney-referred psychologist until a year later. The parties stipulated to approximately $16,000 in lost earnings.