The California Supreme Court has agreed to review whether the mother of the heir to the Herbalife fortune can sue a former Herbalife executive for making a sexual advance toward her in front of her son.

Suzan Hughes's case split an intermediate appeals court, which held by a 2-1 majority that she could not prove “severe” harassment as it has been defined in employment discrimination cases –- even though she sued Christopher Pair under a law that applies to harassment outside the workplace.

California Civil Code Section 51.9 provides a cause of action when there is “a business, service, or professional relationship” between the plaintiff and defendant and the defendant made sexual advances, solicitations, sexual requests, or demands for sexual compliance by the plaintiff that “were unwelcome and pervasive or severe.”

Pair allegedly violated the law while acting on behalf of Hughes's son Alex as a trustee of the Hughes Family Trust. Alex, who is a minor, is the heir of Herbalife founder Mark Hughes, who died in 2000, leaving an estimated fortune of $350 million.

The 2nd District Court of Appeal's majority decision would make it harder for plaintiffs to sue providers of professional services for sexual harassment. But Suzan Hughes was able to petition the Supreme Court with a forceful dissenting opinion behind her.

The case, Justice Orville A. Armstrong said, should not be subject to “rules developed for the workplace context” and Section 51.9 “must be interpreted based on the plain and ordinary meaning of the words used therein.”

Suzan Hughes said in her suit that Pair verbally harassed her after she asked him and the other two trustees to give her $160,000 so she could pay for Alex's two-month summer vacation in a rented Malibu beach home. The trustees had agreed to only one month.

When they met at a public function later the same day, Pair allegedly told Suzan Hughes –- in Alex's presence, "I'm going to fuck you one way or another."

Suzan Hughes has also accused the trustees of mismanaging the Herbalife fortune in various probate court proceedings that one attorney has called the legal equivalent of “World War III.” Her petition to remove Pair and co-trustees Conrad Lee Klein and Jack Reynolds is set for trial in July 2008.

By Matthew Heller
11/29/07