A woman who alleged Paramount Pictures Corp. wrongfully fired her from her finance coordinator position in 2022 for complaining about lax coronavirus precautions, as well as for taking time to quarantine herself when she developed COVID-like symptoms, has dropped her lawsuit against the studio.
In her Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit filed in December 2023, Emily Chaho alleged wrongful termination and disability discrimination as well as various violations of the state Labor Code. On Thursday, her attorney filed court papers with Judge Kristin S. Escalante asking that the plaintiff’s case be dismissed “with prejudice,” meaning it cannot be refiled.
The court papers do not indicated whether the parties settled the case or if Chaho is not pursuing the lawsuit for other reasons.
In her suit, Chaho alleged that she developed a cough while working in the office. She was given a COVID test and the results were negative, but she continued to suffer from COVID-like symptoms and was placed on quarantine that was scheduled to end in mid-May 2022.
However, Chaho was still suffering from coronavirus-like indicators and was given another two days to return, but when she came back in May 2022 she was told she was being terminated, the suit stated. Chaho alleged she was let go because she had a disability and also due to her complaining about allegedly unsafe working conditions.
But in their court papers, Paramount attorneys contended Chaho lost her job because of a “series of performance issues during her brief stint of employment.” The lawyers also denied the plaintiff was disabled.