A judge has denied a motion by the Los Angeles Dodgers to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the team’s former 401(k) auditor who says she was wrongfully terminated and is owed nearly $200,000, finding issue with only one of her causes of action.
CPA Vivian Younger filed the breach of contract lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court, seeking $192,065 plus interest dating back to July 2024. She claims the Dodgers offered her just $100,000 for the work, which she declined.
On Tuesday, Judge Rolf M. Treu overruled the Dodgers’ challenges to Younger’s allegations of breach of oral contract, quantum meruit and promissory estoppel. The judge did find that Younger came up short on facts for her common count claim and gave her 20 days to file an amended complaint.
According to her suit, Younger was the Dodgers’ external 401(k) plan independent auditor from 2004-21, conducting 17 annual audits of the plan’s financial statements.
In March 2020, the team received notice of a U.S. Department of Labor review of its 401(k) plan covering the 2017-20 plan years to ensure compliance with the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).
Younger was retained by the Dodgers’ human resources chief to provide support services, and she was promised in a verbal contract that she would be paid $375 an hour, separate from her annual audit, to perform work related to the DOL investigation, the suit filed last July 22 states.
Younger’s review was to encompass the entities of Los Angeles Dodgers LLC, Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation, American Media Productions LLC, Guggenheim Baseball Management LP and Elysian Park Ventures LLC, according to the suit.
The DOL investigation closed in September 2022, so Younger edited and finalized her DOL report between October 2022 and late March 2023, the suit states.
Younger first presented her invoices for payment, but she was abruptly terminated in early June 2023 and alleges it was retaliatory and aimed at avoiding paying her for her work on the DOL case, the suit states.
Younger rejected the $100,000 offer made in September 2024 and says the team’s failure to pay her in full has caused “significant financial harm.”