Court Opinion

ID: 9536946
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 07:10:04.072374+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:55:36.921778
License: Public Domain

HOLOHAN, Justice
(dissents) :
The rule announced by the majority permitting aggregation of claims under Rule 23 to reach the jurisdictional amount of a Superior Court action is essentially a policy decision. The words “the amount involved” is subject to interpretation and using similar language “matter in controversy” the United States Supreme Court arrived at an opposite result holding that claims may not be aggregated to reach the jurisdictional amount required for federal district courts. Snyder v. Harris, 394 U.S. 332, 89 S.Ct. 1053, 22 L.Ed.2d 319 (1969).
The Legislature provided that the justice courts should have exclusive jurisdiction when the amount involved is less than $200.00, A.R.S. § 22-201, subsec. B. Pursuant to Article 6, section 14 of the Arizona Constitution, A.R.S., the action by the Legislature vests the exclusive jurisdiction for the above type of claims in the justice courts to the exclusion of the Superior Court. Since the Legislature sets the public policy of the State it is my feeling that the Court should support such policy in word and spirit. An individual claim for less than $200.00 should not gain or lose its nature merely because others have the same or similar small claims. The policy should be that such claims remain in the justice courts.
*178The majority point out that class actions are not properly a subject for justice court practice, and I' agree with this position. A refusal to allow aggregation for purposes of arriving at a jurisdictional amount does not mean that a class action is a proper remedy for a justice court. A.R.S. § 22-211 provides that the procedure and practices in the Superior Court “so far as applicable” govern procedure and practices in justice of the peace courts. It is clear and would be a proper holding that class actions are not applicable to the justice of the peace courts. The power to make procedural rules applicable to any court rests with this Court, Article 6, section 5(5).
The class action is a useful procedural device for bringing before the court a large number of persons who have similar issues to be decided, and in the interest of economy in time and expense to court and litigant the matters can be resolved in a single action. The jurisdiction of the Superior Court is broad enough to deal with almost every area of concern except those instances where the amount involved is less than $200.00 and the Superior Court does not otherwise have jurisdiction. It would seem that in those instances in which the only issue is the amount of money, a claim for less than $200.00 should be prosecuted in the justice court, and the fact that others may have a similar or identical claim should be of no consequence, and the parties should be left to their own individual decisions as to whether to seek recovery for the amount of their claim in the justice court.
The class action can be abused by persons, who for private motives, prosecute a claim for a very small amount on their own part but by aggregating other such small claims in a class action exaggerate the whole controversy all out of proportion to the amount and justice required. It appears to me that the Court’s ruling today invites much mischief in the area of the class action. Matters of small consequence can by the device of the class action be made into major controversies by the ambitious, vengeful or ruthless, when, were it not for such device, the claims would have been resolved in the justice courts or passed over by some claimants as not worth the effort. Requiring that each claim in a class action equal the jurisdictional requirement for Superior Court would avoid such mischief and still provide justice.
In my view the relief sought by the petitioner to prohibit further proceedings in the Superior Court as a class action in this cause should have been granted.