On July 14, 2009, plaintiff Regina Lee and her husband, Sungsoo “Stan” Lee, were hired by Ixzibit Inc. to be part of a hotel management team that was relocating from Southern California to Northern California. Mrs. Lee accepted the position of Regional Director of Sales and Marketing for three hotel properties managed by Ixzibit in Northern California, and Mr. Lee accepted the position of Assistant General Manager for one of the three hotels. Their start date was Aug. 1, 2009. Two weeks after the Lees relocated to Northern California, Mr. Lee resigned due to a back injury. That same day, on Aug. 14, 2009, Mrs. Lee was terminated from employment. Regina Lee sued Ixzibit Inc.; the president of Ixzibit, Mack Lee; and a contractor who was hired as a consultant for Ixzibit, Robert Cho. Mrs. Lee alleged that the defendants’ actions constituted retaliation, wrongful termination, and disability discrimination in violation of California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act. Plaintiff’s counsel contended that the defendants forced Mr. Lee to resign because of his back injury and that Mrs. Lee was wrongfully terminated due to her husband’s alleged disability status. Counsel argued that Mrs. Lee’s termination violated FEHA, which prohibits discrimination based on an employee’s “association” with a person who is disabled. Defense counsel argued that Mrs. Lee’s termination had nothing to do with her husband’s disability status. Instead, counsel contended that Mrs. Lee’s performance deficiencies, which were documented by written reports from the general manager to whom Mrs. Lee reported, were the true reason for her termination and were not a “pretext” for discrimination., Mrs. Lee claimed she suffered emotional distress and lost earnings as a result of her termination. Thus, she sought recovery of $74,675.84 in economic damages for her lost earnings and an unspecified amount in general damages for her pain and suffering. She also sought recovery of punitive damages. Defense counsel argued that Mrs. Lee was owed zero damages due to her being terminated for legitimate business reasons.