We affirm the trial court's finding of liability for retaliation.
Damages and NSI's After-Acguired Evidence Defense
RCW 49.60.030(2) provides remedies for a prevailing party, including
recovery of actual damages, costs, and reasonable attorney fees. "Actual
damages are 'a remedy for full compensatory damages, excluding only nominal,
exemplary, or punitive damages,' that are 'proximately caused by the wrongful
36 The Association of Washington Business filed an amicus curiae brief in
support of this argument.
37 See Alonso v. Qwest Communications Co., 178 Wn. App. 734, 747, 315
P.3d 610 (2013), and Adams v. Able Building Supply, Inc., 114 Wn. App. 291,
297, 57 P.3d 280 (2002), for the proposition that "[t]he WLAD is not intended as a
general civility code." These cases are distinguishable as involving disparate
treatment or a hostile work environment, where the degree of abusive conduct by
co-workers is the disputed fact. The issue in this case is not Howell's
(undisputed) offensive behavior, which by itself would likely not support such a
claim. Rather, the issue here is the alleged retaliatory conduct of NSI in
response to Currier's complaint about it.
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NO. 70128-2-1/16
action, resulting directly from the violation of RCW 49.60.'"38 A court may limit
economic damages if the employer shows evidence of the employee's
wrongdoing that it discovered only after the discharge.39 Under this after-
acquired evidence rule, an award for back pay is calculated from the date of the
unlawful discharge to the date the employer discovered a lawful basis for
discharge.40 To establish an after-acquired evidence defense, an employer must