A former part-time Black Angus Steakhouse server has settled her lawsuit against the restaurant chain in which she alleged she was wrongfully fired from the Northridge location for seeking time off to be with her toddler son.
Melissa Cerda’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit stated that her longtime partner, the boy’s father, had recently died in a motorcycle accident. She also alleged a violation of the state Labor Code and sought unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
On Tuesday, the attorneys told Judge Teresa Beaudet that the case was resolved. No terms were divulged. In November 2024, the judge signed an order sending the case to arbitration and staying the case after both sides agreed to the move.
Cerda was hired as a part-time server at the Corbin Avenue restaurant in September 2022. While employed there, she was in a longtime relationship with a man who bore her a son in May 2022, but who died in a motorcycle accident in June 2023, leaving the suddenly single mother of a 1-year-old boy “distraught and overwhelmed,” the suit stated.
Cerda’s grief prevented her from going to her next work shift that was set for July 2, 2023, but she did work her next scheduled shift five days later still under duress, the suit stated.
“She was clearly distraught and emotionally struggling,” according to the complaint. “She shared with her manager that her partner had been killed and that she was struggling to take care of herself and care for her 1-year-old son in light of the circumstances, but that she needed her job and would work if necessary.”
Cerda’s manager instead told her to go home and she was not assigned any new shifts at the time, the suit stated. However, she was notified on July 19, 2023, that she was terminated effective that date, even though she was entitled to five days of bereavement leave to care for her son, the suit alleged.