CACI No. 2510. “Constructive Discharge” Explained
Judicial Council of California Civil Jury Instructions (2025 edition)
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2510.“Constructive Discharge” Explained
[Name of plaintiff] must prove that [he/she/nonbinary pronoun] was
constructively discharged. To establish constructive discharge, [name of
plaintiff] must prove the following:
1. That [name of defendant] [through [name of defendant]’s officers,
directors, managing agents, or supervisory employees]
intentionally created or knowingly permitted working conditions
to exist that were so intolerable that a reasonable person in [name
of plaintiff]’s position would have had no reasonable alternative
except to resign; and
2. That [name of plaintiff] resigned because of these working
conditions.
In order to be sufficiently intolerable, adverse working conditions must
be unusually aggravated or amount to a continuous pattern. In general,
single, trivial, or isolated acts of misconduct are insufficient to support a
constructive discharge claim. But in some circumstances, a single
intolerable incident may constitute a constructive discharge.
New June 2012; Revised May 2019, May 2020
Directions for Use
Give this instruction with CACI No. 2401, Breach of Employment
Contract - Unspecified Term - Actual or Constructive Discharge - Essential Factual
Elements, CACI No. 2500, Disparate Treatment - Essential Factual Elements, CACI
No. 2505, Retaliation, CACI No. 2540, Disability Discrimination - Disparate
Treatment - Essential Factual Elements, CACI No. 2560, Religious Creed
Discrimination - Failure to Accommodate - Essential Factual Elements, or CACI
No. 2570, Age Discrimination - Disparate Treatment - Essential Factual Elements, if
the employee alleges that because of the employer’s actions, the employee had no
reasonable alternative other than to leave the employment. Constructive discharge
can constitute the adverse employment action required to establish a FEHA violation
for discrimination or retaliation. (See Steele v. Youthful Offender Parole Bd. (2008)
162 Cal.App.4th 1241, 1253 [76 Cal.Rptr.3d 632].)
Sources and Authority
• “[C]onstructive discharge occurs only when an employer terminates employment
by forcing the employee to resign. A constructive discharge is equivalent to a
dismissal, although it is accomplished indirectly. Constructive discharge occurs
only when the employer coerces the employee’s resignation, either by creating
working conditions that are intolerable under an objective standard, or by failing
to remedy objectively intolerable working conditions that actually are known to
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the employer. We have said ‘a constructive discharge is legally regarded as a
firing rather than a resignation.’ ” (Mullins v. Rockwell Internat. Corp. (1997) 15
Cal.4th 731, 737 [63 Cal.Rptr.2d 636, 936 P.2d 1246], internal citations omitted.)
• “Actual discharge carries significant legal consequences for employers, including
possible liability for wrongful discharge. In an attempt to avoid liability, an
employer may refrain from actually firing an employee, preferring instead to
engage in conduct causing him or her to quit. The doctrine of constructive
discharge addresses such employer-attempted ‘end runs’ around wrongful
discharge and other claims requiring employer-initiated terminations of
employment.” (Turner v. Anheuser-Busch, Inc. (1994) 7 Cal.4th 1238, 1244 [32
Cal.Rptr.2d 223, 876 P.2d 1022].)
• “Standing alone, constructive discharge is neither a tort nor a breach of contract,
but a doctrine that transforms what is ostensibly a resignation into a firing.”
(Turner, supra, 7 Cal.4th at p. 1251.)
• “In order to amount to constructive discharge, adverse working conditions must
be unusually ‘aggravated’ or amount to a ‘continuous pattern’ before the
situation will be deemed intolerable. In general, ‘[s]ingle, trivial, or isolated acts
of [misconduct] are insufficient’ to support a constructive discharge claim.
Moreover, a poor performance rating or a demotion, even when accompanied by
reduction in pay, does not by itself trigger a constructive discharge.” (Turner,
supra, 7 Cal.4th at p. 1247, internal citation and footnotes omitted.)
• “In some circumstances, a single intolerable incident, such as a crime of
violence against an employee by an employer, or an employer’s ultimatum that
an employee commit a crime, may constitute a constructive discharge. Such
misconduct potentially could be found ‘aggravated.’ ” (Turner, supra, 7 Cal.4th
at p. 1247, fn. 3.)
• “Although situations may exist where the employee’s decision to resign is
unreasonable as a matter of law, ‘[w]hether conditions were so intolerable as to
justify a reasonable employee’s decision to resign is normally a question of fact.
[Citation.]’ ” (Vasquez v. Franklin Management Real Estate Fund, Inc. (2013)
222 Cal.App.4th 819, 827 [166 Cal.Rptr.3d 242].)
• “[T]he standard by which a constructive discharge is determined is an objective
one - the question is ‘whether a reasonable person faced with the allegedly
intolerable employer actions or conditions of employment would have no
reasonable alternative except to quit.’ ” (Turner, supra, 7 Cal.4th at p. 1248,
internal citations omitted.)
• “[U]nder Turner, the proper focus is on the working conditions themselves, not
on the plaintiff’s subjective reaction to those conditions.” (Simers v. Los Angeles
Times Communications, LLC (2018) 18 Cal.App.5th 1248, 1272 [227 Cal.Rptr.3d
695], original italics.)
• “The length of time the plaintiff remained on the job may be one relevant factor
in determining the intolerability of employment conditions from the standpoint
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of a reasonable person.” (Turner,supra, 7 Cal.4th at p. 1254, original italics.)
• “[T]here was, as the trial court found, substantial evidence that plaintiff’s age
and disability were ‘substantial motivating reason[s]’ for the adverse employment
action or actions to which plaintiff was subjected. But the discriminatory motive
for plaintiff’s working conditions has no bearing on whether the evidence was
sufficient to establish constructive discharge.” (Simers,supra, 18 Cal.App.5th at
p. 1271.)
• “In order to establish a constructive discharge, an employee must plead and
prove, by the usual preponderance of the evidence standard, that the employer
either intentionally created or knowingly permitted working conditions that were
so intolerable or aggravated at the time of the employee’s resignation that a
reasonable employer would realize that a reasonable person in the employee’s
position would be compelled to resign. [¶] For purposes of this standard, the
requisite knowledge or intent must exist on the part of either the employer or
those persons who effectively represent the employer, i.e., its officers, directors,
managing agents, or supervisory employees.” (Turner, supra, 7 Cal.4th at p.
1251.)
Secondary Sources
3 Witkin, Summary of California Law (11th ed. 2017) Agency and Employment,
§ 238
Chin et al., California Practice Guide: Employment Litigation, Ch. 4-G, Constructive
Discharge, ¶ 4:405 et seq. (The Rutter Group)
3 Wilcox, California Employment Law, Ch. 43, Civil Actions Under Equal
Employment Opportunity Laws, § 43.01 (Matthew Bender)
11 California Forms of Pleading and Practice, Ch. 115, Civil Rights: Employment
Discrimination, § 115.34 (Matthew Bender)
21 California Forms of Pleading and Practice, Ch. 249, Employment Law:
Termination and Discipline, § 249.15 (Matthew Bender)
10 California Points and Authorities, Ch. 100, Employer and Employee: Wrongful
Termination and Discipline, § 100.31 et seq. (Matthew Bender)
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© Judicial Council of California.
