A group of former employees is challenging their dismissal over COVID-19 vaccination and testing policies, arguing that their rights under the Confidentiality of Medical Information Act (CMIA) were violated. The complaint was filed by Eva Zazueta-Lara, Gabriel Rene Felix, and Jeanne Marie Besanceney against the County of Sonoma on August 1, 2024, in the Court of Appeal of the State of California.
The plaintiffs, who previously worked for the County of Sonoma, were terminated in 2021 after refusing to comply with a new policy requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccination or weekly testing. They allege that this policy infringed upon their medical privacy rights as protected under the CMIA. According to court documents, Zazueta-Lara and Besanceney filed their initial complaints in December 2021 without adhering to the Government Claims Act's requirements. Felix’s complaint was similarly non-compliant. On May 2, 2022, they mailed claim notification packets to the County but received rejections on May 19, 2022, for failing to present timely claims.
In response to these rejections, Felix and Zazueta-Lara filed amended complaints on June 20, 2022, followed by Besanceney on July 25, 2022. The County demurred all three complaints based on non-compliance with a six-month deadline stipulated by Government Code section 911.2 for claims relating to "injury to person." The County argued that plaintiffs should have sought court relief from this requirement before initiating lawsuits.
The trial court sustained these demurrers without leave to amend. It ruled that plaintiffs' claims were indeed subject to a six-month deadline and dismissed them as untimely under Government Code section 911.2. The court further emphasized that failure to present timely claims is a critical element barring any untimely claims from proceeding.
On appeal, plaintiffs argued that their CMIA claims should be subject to a twelve-month deadline rather than six months. However, the appellate court affirmed the trial court's decision. It concluded that plaintiffs’ appeals failed because they did not challenge other grounds for dismissal related to their failure to file claims prior to lawsuits as required by Government Code section 945.4.
The plaintiffs are seeking compensatory damages for economic loss or personal injury resulting from alleged violations of CMIA and punitive damages up to $3,000 per violation along with attorney fees and litigation costs capped at $1,000 each.
The judges presiding over this case include Petrou J., Tucher P.J., and Rodriguez J., with case IDs A167741 (Zazueta-Lara v. County of Sonoma), A168106 (Felix v. County of Sonoma), and A168107 (Besanceney v. County of Sonoma).