'Desperate Housewives' Actress To Get New Trial Over Firing

SAN FRANCISCO — A Los Angeles appeals court has revived actress Nicollette Sheridan's suit over her firing from the ABC television series Desperate Housewives.

The Second District Court of Appeal ruled on Tuesday that Sheridan was not required to exhaust administrative remedies before suing the show's production studio under a provision of California's Labor Code that bars employers from firing workers for complaining about unsafe working conditions.

Sheridan, who played the role of Edie Britt, claimed in a 2010 suit that her character was written off the popular show after she complained that creator Marc Cherry hit her during a rehearsal. A 2012 trial ended in a hung jury.

Sheridan's lawyer Mark Baute of the L.A. firm Baute Crochetiere & Gilford said Tuesday's ruling opens the door to a new trial.

"It's a simple case. Nicollette was fired because she complained to management about an act of physical violence from an angry man," Baute wrote in an email. ABC's parent company, The Walt Disney Co., backed Cherry, Baute wrote, "because back then Mr. Cherry was viewed as the $1.4 billion man, due to his status as the show's creator."

Baute said the new trial could be easier to win because the TV show is no longer being made. The initial jury voted 8-4 in favor of Sheridan, he said.

"The second trial will be hard fought," he wrote. "There are no surprises left."

Touchstone Television Productions, a division of ABC Studios, was represented by attorneys with Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp and Horvitz & Levy. Attorneys for the studio contacted late Tuesday could not be reached or declined to comment.

The appellate decision comes after a years-long legal soap opera set off by the 2012 mistrial.

Reviewing the trial in 2012, the Second District Court of Appeal instructed Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Stern to issue a directed verdict for Touchstone but suggested Sheridan could file an amended complaint under Section 6310 of the California Labor Code.

The studio then argued that Sheridan had failed to exhaust her administrative remedies by first filing a claim with the state Labor Commissioner's Office and sought the suit's dismissal.

Stern initially sided with Sheridan but subsequently sustained the demurrer in light of a 2013 appeals court decision holding that an employee must exhaust administrative remedies before suing. However, three weeks after Stern's ruling, the California Supreme Court ordered the depublication of the decision in MacDonald v. State of California. Additionally, the Legislature amended the labor code to clarify that exhaustion is not always required to sue.

Stern denied Sheridan's motion for reconsideration. The appeals panel unanimously disagreed.

"The sole issue on appeal is whether Sheridan was required to exhaust her administrative remedies," wrote Justice Thomas Willhite Jr. in an opinion joined by Presiding Justice Norman Epstein and Justice Nora Manella. "We conclude that she was not required to do so and therefore reverse."

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