A Marin County jury has awarded a nearly $1.3 million judgment to a Fairfax resident who claimed he was fired in 2020 after objecting to his employer’s alleged violation of COVID-19 restrictions.
“I lost my job for doing what was right,” said James Caldwell, who had worked as a salesperson at the Home Consignment Center in San Rafael for 11 years.
The judgment was awarded July 7. Brad Weintraub, an attorney for the business, declined to comment.
Caldwell, 59, earned about $40,000 to $45,000 a year while working at the San Rafael store. He said he is now making more in his new job reading meters for the Marin Municipal Water District.
“I didn’t mind struggling because I was doing what I loved,” he said. “It was my passion.”
Home Consignment Center is a furniture and jewelry consignment store with shops throughout California and in Texas. Its headquarters is in Danville, Contra Costa County.
Caldwell said that over the years he became very knowledgeable about mid-century art, pianos, “the type of things that made the store vibrant and made the job fun.”
“I became known as a ‘picker’ among my friends, someone who can immediately identify quality pieces that will sell and for what price, which was kind of cool,” Caldwell said.
In late March 2020, Home Consignment Center closed its stores temporarily and laid off many of its employees because of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. According to the suit, which was filed in August 2021, the company announced to employees before the layoffs: “We are confident we can ramp up rapidly and resume business when we are finally allowed. We will need our valued employees more than ever at that time.”
According to the suit, in April 2020, Home Consignment Center received approval for a Paycheck Protection Program loan in the amount of approximately $1.55 million to cover payroll for 260 retained employees. The loan was forgiven later that year.
In May 2020, Caldwell and other co-workers received an email from the Home Consignment Center regarding the store’s plan for reopening and rehiring employees. They were advised to contact the personnel department if they were interested in returning to work.
Caldwell did so. On May 18, 2020, he received notice that the San Rafael store planned to reopen on June 4 or June 5. He responded, offering to appear a few days prior to reopening to assist with the process.
Caldwell met with the store’s manager and others at the San Rafael store on June 2 for about two and a half hours. He participated in discussions regarding the reopening and did some preparatory work removing protective coverings from furniture and arranging some merchandise displays.
“While assisting in the re-opening preparations, the store manager made a comment that they might get closed,” the lawsuit said.
This caused Caldwell to be concerned about whether the store was complying with the regulations for reopening. He researched the requirements for opening a store on the Marin County health department’s website and discovered that stores such as Home Consignment Center were cleared only for “curbside” business, not an open showroom.
“He was concerned that staff was being asked to return to work to an open showroom where they would be in close contact with staff and the public, where there was no plan as to how to protect staff and public and where HCC was violating the law,” the suit said.
Caldwell texted the store manager to inform he would arrive to work in the afternoon as instructed but that, in the meantime, the county health department website indicated the store should be doing curbside business only.
When Caldwell arrived to work, he again stated his concerns about the store operating outside safety regulations. His manager dismissed his concerns and told him he would communicate with him only in writing from then on. The next day, Caldwell sent a detailed email to Home Consignment Center’s personnel department outlining his concerns.
On June 7, Caldwell received a response from one of the owners acknowledging the receipt of his email to personnel and, according to the suit, informing him that “at the moment, we do not have a good position for you. We will notify you when and if that changes.”
After that, Caldwell continued to contact his employer expressing his interest in returning to work. The suit states that Home Consignment Center has not offered to rehire Caldwell, despite having posted openings for sales positions and hiring staff.
Caldwell sued for wrongful termination and failure to pay him for the time he put in. The jury awarded Caldwell $250,000 for emotional distress and $1 million for punitive damages.
Dr. Lisa Santora, the county’s deputy public health officer, wrote in an email that “the March 16, 2020 shelter-in-place order, which effectively ‘flattened the curve,’ significantly contributed to Marin’s low morbidity and mortality before the introduction of vaccines.”
“As the community fatigued from these unprecedented restrictions, we saw increased non-adherence to public health orders,” she added.
Due to this fact and pressure from the state, the county passed an urgency ordinance that created new penalties for violations of public health orders. The county also created a reporting system for residents to provide tips regarding businesses violating COVID-related health orders.
“This was deemed necessary,” Santora wrote, “as the county navigated a summer COVID-19 surge in 2020 when vaccines were not yet on the horizon.”
By Sept. 1, 2020, there had been 3,968 confirmed COVID cases, 70 deaths, and 132 COVID hospitalizations in Marin.
Santora wrote that during the first six weeks of the urgency ordinance, 175 business violations were reported. She said most reported businesses complied after being contacted.
“Only a handful of businesses required second and third visits or fines,” she said.
Caldwell said he was unaware of the reporting system at the time.