On July 11, 2010, plaintiffs Scott Paletz, Stephen Fowler, Ari Ryan, Yanitz Rubin, Marc Newburger, Nick Morrison, Laura Morrison, Matthew Clifford, Jason Shuman, Alex Litvak, Karen Springer, Laura Lugash, Jordan Freedman, Scott Gold, James Whipple, Matt Florin, Ariana Nussdorf, Lyubomir Sokolovskiy and Platinum Events, LLC were members and guests of the young leadership group of the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, a Jewish organization, at an art deco hotel, the Hotel Shangri-La in Santa Monica, for a charitable pool party. The charity event was organized to help children of fallen Israel Defense Forces’ soldiers go to summer camps. The members and guests claimed that during the event, hotel staff and security guards began telling them to remove their literature and banners, to get out of the pool and hot tub, and to stop handing out and/or remove T-shirts in accordance with the employees’ alleged instructions from Tehmina Adaya, a part-owner of the hotel and a Muslim woman of Pakistani descent. Adaya inherited the hotel from her father, a real estate businessman and philanthropist who died in 2006. The plaintiffs sued Adaya and the hotel’s operator, Indus Investments Inc. They alleged that the defendants’ actions constituted negligence, intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress, and discrimination in violation of California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act, which bars hotels and other businesses from discriminating on the basis of sex, race, color or religion. Plaintiffs’ counsel contended that the event was approved by hotel management. A former employee, whose testimony was read to the court, claimed that Adaya repeatedly used profanity as she insisted that the event stop and stated, “If my [family finds] out there’s a Jewish event here, they’re going to pull money from me immediately.” Thus, plaintiffs’ counsel contended that Adaya ordered that the group to leave once she learned of their religion. Adaya denied violating the Unruh Act and denied that she had ordered the group to halt the event for fear that her family would cut off her funding. The hotel also contended that the group had no agreement with the hotel management for the event., The 18 individual plaintiffs claimed emotional distress as a result of being allegedly thrown out of a charity event that they believed had been cleared with the hotel. Thus, the plaintiffs sought recovery for compensatory and punitive damages.