La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club faces multiple lawsuits by former employees

Three separate lawsuits filed in recent months by former employees of the La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club accuse club workers of violations ranging from sexual battery to gender discrimination to failure to pay wages.

The resort club, at 2000 Spindrift Drive in La Jolla Shores, has been in operation since the 1920s. It also operates The Marine Room restaurant and the La Jolla Shores Hotel.

A club representative did not comment about the lawsuits, telling the La Jolla Light that management does not comment on “any private/internal or confidential company matters.”

The first of the suits, filed in April in Superior Court in San Diego, accuses club management of gender discrimination and harassment, creating a hostile work environment, failing to prevent harassment and intentionally inflicting emotional distress on former employee Zachary Haunschild, among other complaints. It adds that Haunschild “has suffered emotional pain, humiliation, mental anguish [and] loss of enjoyment of life” as a result.

The complaint says Haunschild was “one of the few male members of [the Beach & Tennis Club] leadership team, [which] was predominantly female.”

In one incident, the complaint alleges, a club manager noted in Haunschild’s presence that another male employee was sick and then “visibly expressed her disgust and responded with derogatory comments about male employees, including stating ‘I have no sympathy for men being sick’ or words of that effect.”

A few months later, according to the filing, a female club employee told Haunschild that she had been sexually assaulted by another employee on the premises.

“Haunschild encouraged, recommended and helped facilitate this female employee to report this incident to [the club] human-resources department,” the complaint states. “Shortly after, Mr. Haunschild … began experiencing unlawful retaliation by [Beach & Tennis Club management, which] began to exclude Mr. Haunschild from meetings and isolated him.”

Haunschild also experienced “increased scrutiny and perceived targeting regarding his work performance and commitment to LJBTC,” the lawsuit alleges.

It also lists other instances in which Haunschild believes he was retaliated against, including not receiving help with work-related tasks when he asked for it.

The suit seeks damages for mental and emotional distress, back pay, legal fees and more, along with punitive damages “in an amount necessary to make an example of and to punish [the] defendants and deter future similar misconduct.”

The case, which names Amanda Cohen as a co-defendant with the club, is in arbitration.

Soon after Haunschild’s complaint was filed, the female employee who alleged she was sexually assaulted also filed suit. She is identified in the document only by the initials S.L.

S.L.’s complaint alleges that after months of unwanted advances and inappropriate messages, a male employee “randomly entered her office” one evening and “in an aggressive manner … pushed S.L.’s chair against her desk, choked S.L. and then grabbed the back of her neck and head and forced her to give him unconsented oral sex.”

Soon after, S.L. “was diagnosed with an incurable sexually transmitted disease” that she believes came from the assault, the suit states.

In the weeks following, the complaint alleges, Beach & Tennis Club management “began restructuring her position in order to deprive S.L. of work opportunities and reduce her hours. S.L. was also excluded from leadership meetings in a retaliatory manner. S.L. experienced overly aggressive monitoring and micromanagement.”

The suit, which names Austin Miller as a co-defendant with the club, seeks damages for mental and emotional distress, legal fees and more, plus punitive damages. A jury trial is scheduled for March.

Another lawsuit, filed in June by former employee Adam McHugh, alleges the club engaged in “unfair business practices.”

McHugh was a beach attendant for the Beach & Tennis Club from August 2022 to July 2024 and was paid an hourly wage.

The suit claims club management “failed to comply with various sections of the California Labor Code with respect to plaintiff’s employment. These violations include failure to provide legally compliant meal periods, failure to provide legally compliant rest periods, failure to pay minimum and straight-time wages, failure to pay overtime wages, failure to pay wages upon termination of employment, failure to provide accurate itemized wage statements and failure to maintain required time records.”

It seeks “general unpaid wages and such general and special damages as may be appropriate, pre-judgment interest on any unpaid compensation commencing from the date such amounts were due,” attorney fees, court costs and more.

The suit does not name other defendants besides the club. An arbitration hearing is set for February.