In March 2011, plaintiff Mary Smbatian, an Armenian special investigator in the fraud unit of Farmers Insurance, filed a complaint with her supervisors, claiming that she was treated improperly due to her national origin and gender. She was ultimately terminated from her position two months later, in May 2011. Smbatian sued Farmers Insurance Exchange, alleging gender discrimination, national origin discrimination and retaliation. Smbatian claimed that she was discriminated against as a result of her national origin and gender. However, she alleged that after she filed a complaint in March 2011, she was terminated from her position in retaliation for her reporting the alleged discrimination. Defense counsel contended that at the time of the complaint, Smbatian was being investigated for misappropriation of company property and violation of company policies, which counsel presented evidence of in court. Specifically, Farmers Insurance denied Smbatian’s allegations and asserted that Smbatian was never discriminated against on any basis. Thus, it claimed that Smbatian was terminated for legitimate, non-discriminatory reasons, which included the repeated misuse of a corporate credit card and a corporate fuel card over two years, despite being given numerous opportunities to explain the instances, which she could not do. After the close of evidence presented by the defense, Smbatian voluntarily dismissed her gender and national origin discrimination claims, and the trial continued only on her claim of retaliation., Smbatian claimed she suffered emotional distress as a result of being retaliated against for filing a complaint about gender and national origin discrimination. She also claimed that she suffered a loss of earnings due to the termination of her job. Thus, Smbatian sought recovery of damages for her emotional distress and lost wages.