On June 15, 2011, , plaintiff Evelyn Ortega, 56, a registered nurse working in the Medical/Surgical Unit of Community Hospital of San Bernardino, was at work providing patient care when she tripped, fell, and broke her left ankle and bruised her left knee. She subsequently went out on workers’ compensation leave. In December 2011, she returned to the hospital’s Transitional Work Program while she was placed on sedentary duty by her physician. She then worked in the program until April 2012, when she was placed on leave again. However, around the same time, Ortega applied for the position of, and accepted an offer to work as, a quality care coordinator in the quality department, where she would be responsible for the abstraction of data for submission to various government agencies. On May 4, 2012, Ortega’s physician removed the sedentary work restriction, and she started the quality care coordinator job on May 7, 2012. Her new job required her to work at a desk. However, about a month later, on June 15, 2012, Ortega was terminated from her quality care coordinator position. Although she was told she was fired for her failure to complete the 90-day probationary period due to under-performance, Ortega claimed she was terminated for her physical disability, and because she filed a workers’ compensation claim, took a protected leave of absence, and requested reasonable accommodation. Ortega sued Community Hospital of San Bernardino and the hospital’s owner, Dignity Health. Ortega alleged that the defendants’ actions constituted a failure to engage in the interactive process, a failure to provide reasonable accommodation for her physical disability, retaliation, and wrongful termination based on disability discrimination. Plaintiff’s counsel contended that although Ortega’s physician removed the sedentary work restriction on May 4, 2012, the restrictions were only removed because Ortega’s supervisor repeatedly told her to get her restrictions removed and come back to “full duty” in accordance with the hospitals policy. Counsel also contended that the hospital set Ortega up by offering her the quality coordinator job without telling her that the job had a 90-day probationary period and was not union-represented. In addition, counsel contended that once Ortega started the job, her supervisors were unnecessarily critical of Ortega’s work performance, assuring Ortega that she would be terminated within the 90-day probationary period and that she would not be afforded union representation and grievance procedures. Defense counsel argued that Ortega was given an opportunity to work in the quality department in a job that paid about $88,000 per year, which was almost her salary as a registered nurse in the medical/surgical unit, and that the quality care coordinator position was a desk job that was not physically demanding. Thus, counsel contended that Ortega should have been capable of performing her job duties despite her prior ankle and knee and that Ortega was informed of the 90-day probationary period and non-union status when she was offered the job. However, defense counsel argued that Ortega was unable to fulfill her basic job requirements during the probationary period while being preceptored, as she came to work fatigued due to her work performing massages and facials in cosmetic sales at another business after her work in the hospital’s quality department., Ortega claimed that she suffered a loss of past and future earnings and health benefits as a result of losing her job in the hospital’s quality department. She also claimed that she suffered emotional distress and mental suffering as a result of her treatment at the hospital and her termination. Thus, Ortega sought recovery of about $318,596 in past loss of earnings, about $573,785 in future loss of earnings, $637,192 in past general damages, and $1,147,570 in future general damages. In addition to compensatory damages, she sought recovery of punitive damages. Defense counsel contended that Ortega failed to apply for other hospital jobs since her termination in June 2012 and that the only work Ortega has done since her termination was part-time nursing at beauty spas and outpatient cosmetic surgery centers. Thus, counsel argued that Ortega failed to mitigate her damages.