In 2008, plaintiff Dale Egelhoff, along with Simon and Allison Bojkovsky, founded Pacific Lightwave, a telecommunications company based in the Coachella Valley. Mr. Bojkovsky was named Chief Executive Officer and president, while Egelhoff was named vice president and secretary. Egelhoff claimed the startup business had promised to pay him $150,000 in annual salary. Due to deteriorating communications between Egelhoff and the Bojkovskys, Egelhoff claimed that Mr. Bojkovsky terminated his employment on Nov. 17, 2010. Mr. Bojkovsky claimed that this did not take place until after Egelhoff abandoned the company by failing to come to work and failing to respond to calls, letters, and attempts to communicate with him as of Nov. 10, 2010. In December 2010, Pacific Lightwave filed suit against Egelhoff in state court and successfully obtained a restraining order against him. Pacific Lightwave alleged that Egelhoff actively tried to work against the best interests of the company by conspiring with a former Pacific Lightwave employee to hack into the company’s server to download configuration files from the network. It claimed the information was then downloaded to the email system of a Pacific Lightwave competitor whom Egelhoff and the other former employee were associated with. Two years after the restraining order was granted, Egelhoff and his wife, Laurie Egelhoff, sued Pacific Lightwave, as well as Mr. and Mrs. Bojkovsky. The Egelhoffs also sued Cove Electric Inc., a separate entity. They alleged that the defendants’ breached a contract and failed to pay some wages. The Bojkovskys also alleged that the defendants violated numerous state and federal laws, invaded their privacy, committed hacking violations, and trespass to chattel. In addition, they alleged that the Pacific Lightwave’s actions constituted copyright infringement and violations of Public Utilities Code statutes. Prior to trial, the Public Utilities claim was dismissed based on Pacific Lightwave’s motion for judgment on the pleadings, and the Egelhoffs ultimately dropped their copyright infringement claim. In addition, Cove Electric obtained a dismissal from the complaint. Thus, the matter proceeded to trial against Pacific Lightwave and the Bojkovskys only. Mr. Egelhoff contended that since he was a direct employee, as per verbal contract, Mr. Bojkovsky terminated him from employment. He also contended that he was owed unpaid wages and an unpaid bonus, and that Mr. Bojkovsky’s failure to pay the bonus was a breach of contract. Mrs. Egelhoff claimed that Mrs. Bojkovsky used a keystroke capture program to obtain her Facebook password and then logged into her account without authorization to look for information she could use against Mr. Egelhoff. Pacific Lightwave contended that Mr. Egelhoff’s claim regarding an unpaid bonus was originally pled against Cove Electric, and that Mr. Egelhoff ignored that fact at trial and changed the claim to be against Pacific Lightwave. It also contended the breach of contract (bonus) claim overlapped the unpaid wage claim, as it was clear that the alleged amount of unpaid wages derived from the alleged contract. However, according to plaintiff’s counsel, none of Pacific Lightwave’s alleged contentions were made at the subject trial. Mr. Bojkovsky testified that he never agreed to pay Mr. Egelhoff a bonus and that Mr. Egelhoff was only to be paid $90,000 per year, which he claimed was the agreed upon wage. Thus, Mr. Bojkovsky claimed that Mr. Egelhoff was owed zero unpaid wages. In addition, Mr. Bojkovsky claimed that Pacific Lightwave was a startup business with limited revenues, for which he was not receiving a salary., Mr. Egelhoff claimed he was owed $29,186.62 in unpaid wages, and presented a series of checks as evidence that Mr. Bojkovsky owed him wages at his previously claimed rate of $150,000 per year. Mr. Egelhoff further sought recovery of $60,000 in damages for the breach of contract (unpaid bonus) and $17,307.60 in statutory penalties. Defense counsel contended that Mr. Egelhoff failed to introduce any written documentation to support any contract claim, but instead testified that the $150,000 salary claim arose from an oral conversation with Mr. Bojkovsky, which Mr. Bojkovsky adamantly denied. In addition, defense counsel introduced and admitted an April 2010 email authored by Mrs. Egelhoff, who was acting as bookkeeper for Pacific Lightwave, in which she stated that her husband was being paid $90,000 per year.