Baltimore Football Club, Inc. v. Superior Court

• Decision Date: 14 June 1985
• Citation: 215 Cal.Rptr. 323,171 Cal.App.3d 352
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
• Parties: BALTIMORE FOOTBALL CLUB, INC., et al., Petitioners, v. SUPERIOR COURT of the State of California for the County of Sacramento, Respondent. RAMCO, INC., et al., on Behalf of Themselves and Others Similiarly Situated, Real Parties in Interest. Civ. 23825.

Page 323

215 Cal.Rptr. 323

171 Cal.App.3d 352

BALTIMORE FOOTBALL CLUB, INC., et al., Petitioners, v. SUPERIOR COURT of the State of California for the County of Sacramento, Respondent.

RAMCO, INC., et al., on Behalf of Themselves and Others Similiarly Situated, Real Parties in Interest.

Civ. 23825.

Court of Appeal, Third District, California.

June 14, 1985.

Certified for Partial Publication ^*.

Review Denied Oct. 2, 1985.

Ferrari, Alvarez, Olsen & Ottoboni and John M. Ottoboni, San Jose, Cooley, Godward, Castro, Huddleson & Tatum, Paul A. Renne, Craig H. Casebeer and Bruce E. Falconer, San Francisco, for petitioners.

No appearance for respondent.

Friedman, Collard & Poswall, Morton Friedman and Allan J. Owen, Sacramento, for real parties in interest.

SPARKS, Associate Justice.

In this case we consider the propriety of certifying a nationwide class action of National Football League ticket holders for claimed damages arising out of a players' strike. Petitioners, the owners of the 28 teams in the National Football League, seek a peremptory writ of mandate directing the respondent superior court to vacate its decision certifying a class action against all of the petitioners on behalf of all season ticket holders of each team. The underlying action seeks damages based upon claims of unjust enrichment from the use of season ticket purchase money during a year in which games were cancelled due to the strike. We conclude that the requisite community of interest is lacking as to the multiple defendants and for that reason shall issue the writ.

FACTS

This dispute arose as the result of the 1982-1983 players' strike against the National Football League clubs. On December 9, 1982, real party in interest Ramco, Inc., filed a complaint naming as defendants each of the 28 National Football League teams. It was alleged that Ramco, Inc., had purchased a season ticket for the 1982-1983 football season from the San Francisco Forty-Niners, and that the season ticket entitled Ramco, Inc., to attend each of the eight home games to be played by the Forty-Niners. As a result of the players' strike a number of home games were cancelled. It is alleged that after the cancellation of the games the defendants did not offer their season ticket holders the return of money they paid for the season tickets with interest, but rather offered only the return of the money or the opportunity to apply said funds to season tickets The four California football clubs, the San Francisco Forty-Niners, the Los Angeles Rams Football Company, the Los Angeles Raiders, and the Chargers Football Company, filed a demurrer to the complaint. The 24 non-California football clubs moved to quash the service of summons on the basis of a lack of personal jurisdiction. The trial court denied the motion to quash the service of summons. It sustained the demurrer with leave to amend on the ground that the complaint failed to state whether the cause of action was upon a written or oral contract.

for the following year. Ramco, Inc., sought certification as a class action on behalf of all season ticket holders in each of the 28 National Football League cities to compel the return of the funds representing compensation for the cancelled home games and for interest at the prime rate from the commencement of the football strike until the return of the funds.

After various proceedings the plaintiffs eventually filed a third amended complaint. A number of additional party plaintiffs were joined in that pleading. The members of plaintiffs' class were now alleged to be fans of professional football who "purchased a season ticket from one or more of the defendants herein entitling said class member to attend all home football games for that defendant for the 1982-1983 National Football season." It was again alleged that the defendants were unjustly enriched by the use of the season ticket money for their own profit. It was further alleged that the season ticket holders of the defendants were not offered the return of their money with interest or the unjust profits received by the defendants through the use of said money. The plaintiffs sought certification as a class action and the return of all sums representing the profits earned by defendants' retention of the money referred to, which plaintiffs assert to be at least the prime interest rate from the date of purchase of the season ticket until the return of the funds.

The defendants unsuccessfully demurred to the third amended complaint. Thereafter they filed an answer. Plaintiffs moved for certification of the action as a class action. (See Green v. Obledo (1981) 29 Cal.3d 126, 145-146, 172 Cal.Rptr. 206, 624 P.2d 256.) ¹ Defendants opposed the motion for certification as a class action, and in opposition submitted an affidavit of William J. Ray. Ray has been the treasurer of the National Football League since December 1967. He declared that each member club establishes its own policies concerning season tickets, based upon the particular circumstances in the team's home city. Each team sells different numbers of season tickets and each team determines the prices of the tickets, the dates of sale, and all other matters concerning season tickets. Each team's season tickets differ in various ways, including disclaimers printed on the tickets for such matters as rescheduling and revocation.

After the strike ended each club responded similarly but independently. As a result of the strike each club was required to cancel either three or four home games. Each club mailed notices to the affected season ticket holders and refunded the sales price of the season tickets to those who requested refunds. The refunds were paid from the club's own funds. The National Football League teams do not pool and divide season ticket purchase money. After the deduction of taxes and special charges the home team retains 15 percent of the ticket purchase money for stadium rental for a particular game, and the remaining ticket purchase money for that game is divided 60 percent for the home team, and 40 percent for the visiting team. The home team determines its own ticket prices.

The trial court granted the motion to certify the case as a class action. The class is defined as all persons who purchased

a season ticket from one or more of the defendants for all home games during the 1982-1983 National Football League season and who paid a valuable consideration therefor. The 28 defendant football clubs now seek a peremptory writ of mandate directing the respondent superior court to vacate its order granting the plaintiffs' motion and to enter a new order denying the motion for class certification.

DISCUSSION

I ²

II

California's class action statute provides that "when the question is one of a common or general interest, of many persons, or when the parties are numerous, and it is impracticable to bring them all before the court, one or more may sue or defend for the benefit of all." (Code Civ.Proc., § 382.) "Although the statute appears to speak in the alternative, it uniformly has been held that two requirements must be met in order to sustain any class action: (1) there must be an ascertainable class; and (2) there must be a well defined community of interest in the questions of law and fact involved affecting the parties to be represented." (Daar v. Yellow Cab Co. (1967) 67 Cal.2d 695, 704, citations omitted, 63 Cal.Rptr. 724, 433 P.2d 732.) As the high court explained in Richmond v. Dart Industries, Inc. (1981) 29 Cal.3d 462, 470, 174 Cal.Rptr. 515, 629 P.2d 23, the "community of interest requirement embodies three factors: (1) predominant common questions of law or fact; (2) class representatives with claims or defenses typical of the class; and (3) class representatives who can adequately represent the class." Thus an indispensable requirement of a class action is that there be a community of interest between the class members with regard to common questions of law and fact. But how does that community of interest requirement apply when there are multiple defendants? It has been noted that the "[r]esolution of the class action issue assumes an added dimension when multiple parties are named as defendants. This often occurs when several persons have engaged in parallel conduct that affects a class of persons in the same or a similar way. The question is whether a plaintiff who has been affected by the conduct of one of the defendants can name all those who engaged in the challenged conduct as defendants, though that plaintiff had no contact with some of them." (1 Newberg, Class Actions (1977) § 1115g, p. 193.) In the absence of a conspiracy between all of the defendants, California has adopted the rule that a class action may only be maintained against defendants as to whom the class representative has a cause of action. ³ Without such a personal cause of action, the prerequisite that the claims of the representative party be typical of the class cannot be met. If the plaintiff class representative only has a personal cause of action against one defendant and never had any claim of any kind against the remaining defendants, his claim is not typical of the class. This prerequisite is also absent when the class representative's cause of action, although similar to those of other members, is only against a defendant as to whom the other class members have no cause of action. The typicality requirement is thus not fulfilled merely because the plaintiffs allege that they suffered injuries similar to those of other parties at the hands of other defendants.

This precept of class actions is well illustrated in both California and federal decisions. ⁴ For example, in Payne v. United California Bank (1972) 23 Cal.App.3d 850, 100 Cal.Rptr. 672, plaintiffs filed a class action against a vacuum cleaner manufacturer alleging that installment contracts of sale had been fraudulently induced. Plaintiffs also named United California Bank, an...