Opinion ID: 1371302
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: insufficient community of interest

Text: (11a) Defendant next contends the trial court abused its discretion by certifying this class because there is an insufficient community of interest. The contention is correct. (12) The class action is a product of the court of equity  codified in section 382 of the Code of Civil Procedure. It rests on considerations of necessity and convenience, adopted to prevent a failure of justice. ( Daar v. Yellow Cab Co., supra, 67 Cal.2d 695, 703-704.) But while this section was designed to foster justice, class actions may create injustice. The class action may deprive an absent class member of the opportunity to independently press his claim, preclude a defendant from defending each individual claim to its fullest, and even deprive a litigant of a constitutional right. (Note, Class Actions and Interpleader: California Procedure and the Federal Rules (1953) 6 Stan.L.Rev. 120; Simon, Class Actions  Useful Tool or Engine of Destruction (1971) 7 Lincoln L.Rev. 20, 22; Note, Comments on Vasquez v. Superior Court (1971) 18 U.C.L.A.L.Rev. 1041, 1052, fn. 50, 1064.) The initial response to these dangers was that, despite their widespread recognition, class suits were largely restricted. (Comment, Vasquez v. Superior Court of San Joaquin County: A Class Action in Consumer Fraud (1971) 8 Cal.Western L.Rev. 165, 167.) However, in more recent times, this restrictive tendency has dissipated as class actions have been utilized more extensively to meet the growing number of alleged group wrongs in an increasingly complex society. Dealing with class actions in the past, this court has eliminated the requirements of a common fund ( Chance v. Superior Court (1962) 58 Cal.2d 275, 288 [23 Cal. Rptr. 761, 373 P.2d 849]); a common recovery ( Daar v. Yellow Cab Co., supra, 67 Cal.2d 695, 707); and the necessity that class members be necessary parties. ( Weaver v. Pasadena Tournament of Roses (1948) 32 Cal.2d 833, 841 [198 P.2d 514].) It has adopted new procedures to make the use of class suits more effective  again, urging the trial courts to be innovative. ( Vasquez v. Superior Court, supra, 4 Cal.3d 800, 820-821.) However, despite this court's general support of class actions, it has not been unmindful of the accompanying dangers of injustice or of the limited scope within which these suits serve beneficial purposes. Instead, it has consistently admonished trial courts to carefully weigh respective benefits and burdens and to allow maintenance of the class action only where substantial benefits accrue both to litigants and the courts. ( Collins v. Rocha (1972) 7 Cal.3d 232, 238 [108 Cal. Rptr. 1, 497 P.2d 225]; Vasquez v. Superior Court, supra, 4 Cal.3d 800, 810; Daar v. Yellow Cab Co., supra, 67 Cal.2d 695, 713.) It has also urged that the same procedures facilitating proper class actions be used to prevent class suits where they prove nonbeneficial. [6] The trial court, in utilizing these procedures, certified the class appropriate  concluding there is as much community of interest here as in Daar and Vasquez. It further expressed belief that recent decisions by this court cast doubt on the continued validity of older cases such as Weaver v. Pasadena Tournament of Roses, supra, 32 Cal.2d 833. The trial court erred in both conclusions. (13) Holding that a class action cannot be maintained where each member's right to recover depends on facts peculiar to his case, Weaver remains viable in this state. The rule exists because the community of interest requirement is not satisfied if every member of the alleged class would be required to litigate numerous and substantial questions determining his individual right to recover following the class judgment determining issues common to the purported class. (32 Cal.2d at pp. 838-840, 842-843.) This court has consistently recognized the continued validity of this rule. (See Daar v. Yellow Cab Co., supra, 67 Cal.2d 695, 704-705, 707-708; Chance v. Superior Court, supra, 58 Cal.2d 275, 285; Vasquez v. Superior Court, supra, 4 Cal.3d 800, 809, 811, 815-816; Collins v. Rocha, supra, 7 Cal.3d 232, 237-238.) Most significantly, in Gerhard v. Stephens (1968) 68 Cal.2d 864 [69 Cal. Rptr. 612, 442 P.2d 692], this court, based on this rule, refused to certify a class suit, stating, `Applicable precedents indicate that in observing the ascertainable class requirement they are at the same time giving recognition to the principle that a group of individuals' rights to recover, each of which is based on a separate set of facts, cannot be determined by a judgment in a class action.' [Citation.] (68 Cal.2d at p. 912.) The Courts of Appeal have likewise recognized the continued validity of Weaver, refusing to certify classes where the rule applied. (See, for example, Bozaich v. State of California, supra, 32 Cal. App.3d 688, 694-696; Stilson v. Reader's Digest Assn., Inc. (1972) 28 Cal. App.3d 270, 274 [104 Cal. Rptr. 581]; Diamond v. General Motors Corp. (1971) 20 Cal. App.3d 374, 380 [97 Cal. Rptr. 639, 47 A.L.R.3d 759].) (14) In determining whether sufficient community of interest exists to justify the maintenance of a class action, we start from certain settled premises: Before the imposition of a judgment binding on absent parties can be justified, it must be shown that substantial benefits both to the litigants and to the court will result. ( Daar v. Yellow Cab Co., supra, 67 Cal.2d 695, 713; Vasquez v. Superior Court, supra, 4 Cal.3d 800, 810.) The burden of such a showing falls on plaintiff ( Vasquez v. Superior Court, supra, 4 Cal.3d 800, 820), and the ultimate determination of whether the class action is appropriate turns on the existence and extent of common questions of law and fact. As noted above, each member must not be required to individually litigate numerous and substantial questions to determine his right to recover following the class judgment; and the issues which may be jointly tried, when compared with those requiring separate adjudication, must be sufficiently numerous and substantial to make the class action advantageous to the judicial process and to the litigants. ( Collins v. Rocha, supra, 7 Cal.3d 232, 238.) (11b) In applying these premises, it must be concluded the instant facts do not present a community of interest comparable to Daar or Vasquez. In those cases, the issue of the defendant's liability to the class as a whole could be determined by facts common to all. Liability to the class could be established by evidence defendant engaged in an illegal scheme to cheat or overcharge patrons, coupled with a showing from defendant's own books that defendant was successful in his scheme. [7] However, the present action for nuisance and inverse condemnation is predicated on facts peculiar to each prospective plaintiff. An approaching or departing aircraft may or may not give rise to actionable nuisance or inverse condemnation depending on a myriad of individualized evidentiary factors. While landing or departure may be a fact common to all, liability can be established only after extensive examination of the circumstances surrounding each party. Development, use, topography, zoning, physical condition, and relative location are among the many important criteria to be considered. No one factor, not even noise level, [8] will be determinative as to all parcels. The uncontradicted evidence reveals the development, character, and uses of the geographic region of this proposed class are diverse. Within the region are industrial plants, public buildings, body shops, warehouses, gas stations, office buildings, multi-unit apartments, single family residences, and vacant land  some being farmed. The region is bisected by a major thoroughfare and bounded by a highway. Finally, a railroad right-of-way passes through a portion of the proposed region. Plaintiffs attempt to avoid the application of Weaver to this case, and thereby to sustain the class, by avoiding the need for individual evaluation. They attempt to divide the parcels of land represented by the class into subclassifications and then to determine, as a group, the diminution in value for all members in each subclassification. This scheme fails in two respects. First, the scheme necessarily requires plaintiffs to disregard all liability for other forms of damage (i.e., actual physical injury to the property). As we shall conclude below, the representative of a class may not be allowed to commit such a breach of a fiduciary duty. Hence, the proposed classification system is unacceptable. Second, the scheme is incompatible with the fundamental maxim that each parcel of land is unique. (Civ. Code, § 3387; see also Porporato v. Devincenzi (1968) 261 Cal. App.2d 670, 677 [68 Cal. Rptr. 210].) Although this rule was created at common law, the very factors giving it vitality in the simple days of its genesis take on added significance in this modern era of development. Simply stated, there are now more characteristics and criteria by which each piece of land differs from every other. We decline to alter this rule of substantive law to make class actions more available. (15) Class actions are provided only as a means to enforce substantive law. Altering the substantive law to accommodate procedure would be to confuse the means with the ends  to sacrifice the goal for the going. [9] Moreover, even were we to allow a subclassification process here, the factors giving the uniqueness rule vitality would serve to break down the alleged beneficial aspects which such a process might yield under these facts, making a class action here unmanageable. Given the many recognized factors combining to make up the uniqueness of each parcel of land, the number of subclassifications into which the class would be required to be divided to yield any meaningful result would be substantial. Then, because liability is here predicated on variables like the degree of noise, vapor, and vibration, the problem is compounded by the factors of distance and direction affecting these variables. The result becomes a statistical permutation, and the requisite number of subclassifications quickly approaches the total number of parcels in the class. Under such circumstances, there is little or no benefit in maintaining the action as a class. Conversely, these uniqueness factors weigh heavily in favor of requiring independent litigation of the liability to each parcel and its owner. Because liability here is predicated on the impact of certain activities on a particular piece of land, the factors determinative of the close issue of liability are the specific characteristics of that parcel. The grouping and treating of a number of different parcels together, however, necessarily diminishes the ability to evaluate the merits of each parcel. The superficial adjudications which class treatment here would entail could deprive either the defendant or the members of the class  or both  of a fair trial. Reason and the constitutional mandates of due process compel us to deny sanction to such a proceeding. The proposed classification system failing, [10] the proposed class fails. It is true some questions common to the members of the class remain. But the class judgment rendered on these facts would not determine issues of sufficient number or substantiality to warrant class treatment. [11] Most notably, the class judgment would fail to establish the basic issue of defendant's liability to the purported class. While we have held in several cases the failure of the class judgment to establish individual damage would not be fatal, in each the class judgment to be rendered would have established the basic issue of liability to the class. (See Collins v. Rocha, supra, 7 Cal.3d 232; Vasquez v. Superior Court, supra, 4 Cal.3d 800; Daar v. Yellow Cab Co., supra, 67 Cal.2d 695.) (16) Only in an extraordinary situation would a class action be justified where, subsequent to the class judgment, the members would be required to individually prove not only damages but also liability. There is nothing to indicate the instant action presents such an extraordinary situation.