Claremont’s assistant city manager has been dismissed as a defendant in a lawsuit filed by a 65-year-old woman who alleges she was wrongfully terminated in 2024 because of her age and due to her health issues.
Daylene Alliman also contends in her Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit that she suffered a backlash for complaining to Assistant City Manager Jamie Earl that the municipality was out of compliance in sexual harassment training and in other areas. Alliman sought punitive damages against Earl.
However, on Friday, Judge Christopher K. Lui dismissed the one cause of action brought against Earl, which alleged retaliation.
“The court finds that, as a matter of statutory construction, (the state Labor Code) does not impose individual liability upon individual persons who are not considered employers,” the judge wrote.
According to her lawsuit, Alliman was hired as a personnel services manager in the administrative service department of its personnel division in September 2023 and has human resources experience of more than 25 years in the public and private sectors.
Alliman’s duties included reviewing the city’s human resources and personnel policies to assist with bringing the city into compliance, but she maintains she was met with resistance in some areas by upper management, including sexual harassment training as well as the municipality’s coronavirus and lactation policies.
In March 2024, while continuing to make her concerns known, Alliman disclosed that she was starting to experience anxiety, high blood pressure, poor sleep and severe chest pain which she believed to be a heart attack, the suit states.
Alliman asked to take her lunch breaks away from her work desk, no work on Fridays or weekends and permission for additional walking breaks, but the city responded by giving her more work, the suit filed in January 2025 alleges.
Alliman prepared another memo in April addressing some of the previous issues and also presenting a comparison with other cities the size of Claremont to demonstrate how the human resources staff needed more people, the suit states.
Alliman was terminated in May 2024, according to the suit.