On July 24, 2012, plaintiff Noe Abarca, 61, presented a doctor’s note to his supervisor, Agustina Manzano, which restricted him from lifting no more than 15 to 20 pounds at work for the next 30 days. After previously working for 22 years in a garment factory in downtown Los Angeles, Abarca was recruited by Manzano, in 2006, to work in the Quality Control Department at Citizens of Humanity, LLC, which is a worldwide, high-end jeans company that employs hundreds of workers. For the next six years, Abarca’s main job, as the only man working in the Quality Control Department, was to unload boxes of jeans off of large pallets that came into the department so that other workers could inspect the products. To perform his job, Abarca used a pallet jack to drag the pallet over to the quality control inspection tables. He would then lift each box off the pallet for inspection, take the jeans out, and sort them by size. However, Abarca claimed that he began to develop pain in his shoulders due to the repetitive lifting, bending, and carrying of boxes from the pallet jack between 2006 and 2011. As a result, he spoke to Manzano about the pain and, in response, Manzano told him to ask others for help. In 2012, Abarca’s doctor placed him on work restrictions, preventing him from lifting more than 15 to 20 pounds for the next 30 days. Abarca subsequently presented Manzano with the doctor’s note on July 24, 2012, and one month later, on Aug. 24, 2012, the day Abarca’s doctor’s note was set to expire, Manzano made the decision to terminate him. As a result, Abarca was fired on Aug. 28, 2012. Abarca sued his employer, Citizens of Humanity LLC, alleging that its actions constituted disability discrimination, failure to provide reasonable accommodation, failure to engage in the interactive process, failure to prevent discrimination, retaliation, and wrongful termination. Abarca claimed that when he told Manzano about his shoulder pain, Manzano told him to ask others for help and that if he did not do his job, he would be fired. Abarca claimed that thereafter, Manzano did not follow up with him, nor did she report his injury to the human resources representative or to her immediate supervisor. He also claimed that although his coworkers would occasionally help him, they did so inconsistently, causing him to suffer through the pain. Abarca further claimed that when he was called into the human resources representative’s office to be fired, he was forced to sign documents that wrongly stated that the date of his injury was the date of termination, on Aug. 28, 2012, even though the company was aware that he had been injured well before that date. Plaintiff’s counsel contended that Abarca was a hardworking employee of Citizens of Humanity for six years before he was abruptly terminated. Counsel argued that Citizens of Humanity terminated Abarca because he was injured and unable to do the job it hired him to do. In addition, plaintiff’s counsel argued that by forcing Abarca to sign the government claim forms stating a false date of injury, along with approving the bad conduct of high level management who failed to follow the established company policy and procedure for injured workers, Citizens of Humanity had engaged in malice, oppression or fraud. Defense counsel contended that Abarca was a poor performer who was lazy and did not want to do the work and that Abarca had sexually harassed his coworkers. Counsel also contended that Abarca could not have done the work anyhow because workers’ compensation doctors labeled him as “totally temporarily disabled.” Defense counsel argued that as a result, the company reasonably attempted to accommodate Abarca, engage in the interactive process, and adhere to the doctor’s note by getting his coworkers to help him lift for years. Plaintiff’s counsel noted that Citizens of Humanity failed to produce the human resources representative who had allegedly been present at Abarca’s termination and who had allegedly forced Abarca to sign the government claim forms., Abarca was a Mexican immigrant who came to the United States in the 1980s and had gained permanent residency under the Ronald Reagan amnesty program. His counsel contended that Abarca is a hardworking family man with six daughters and that Abarca had worked for 22 years in a garment factory in downtown Los Angeles to provide for his family. However, due to his termination, Abarca’s savings were quickly depleted and he was left with few options. Plaintiff’s counsel contended that Abarca’s job was his life and by taking it away from him, he was severely damaged, among other things. Between 2012 and 2014, Abarca attempted to find work by contacting various manufacturers in the area, going to a temp agency, and filling out applications. However, no one wanted to hire him, as he had been labeled “totally temporarily disabled” for purposes of his workers’ compensation claim. As a result, and with money running low, Abarca picked up cans off the street and recycled them to get money. In 2014, Abarca suffered a stroke. Although he did recover from the stroke, he still needs to use a crutch to help him walk. Thus, Abarca sought recovery of past and future loss of earnings, and recovery of damages for his past and future emotional pain and suffering. (He did not request damages resulting from his stroke.) Abarca also sought recovery of punitive damages due to Citizens of Humanity’s alleged malice, oppression or fraud. Defense counsel contested the nature and extent of Abarca’s alleged and damages arising from his termination. Counsel contended that Abarca was not damaged by the termination because he lied to his doctors, who then wrote inaccurate reports.