Collins v. Rocha

• Decision Date: 22 May 1972
• Citation: 497 P.2d 225,7 Cal.3d 232,102 Cal.Rptr. 1
• Court: California Supreme Court
• Parties: , 497 P.2d 225 Frank COLLINS et al., Plaintiffs and Appellants, v. Pete ROCHA et al., Defendants and Respondents. L.A. 29829.

Page 1

102 Cal.Rptr. 1

7 Cal.3d 232, 497 P.2d 225

Frank COLLINS et al., Plaintiffs and Appellants, v. Pete ROCHA et al., Defendants and Respondents.

L.A. 29829.

Supreme Court of California.

May 22, 1972.

Ralph Santiago Abascal, San Francisco, Dennis R. Powell, Salinas, Edgar A. Kerry and Peter Haberfeld, Marysville, for plaintiffs-appellants.

Hutton, Foley & Anderson and Peter D. Anderson, King City, for defendants and respondents.

MOSK, Justice.

We are called upon to determine in this case whether the trial court erred in sustaining a demurrer to plaintiffs' complaint on the ground that it did not meet the requirements for a class action.

The complaint sets forth three causes of action on behalf of the class, based upon theories of fraud or deceit, negligent misrepresentation, and breach of contract. ¹ It is alleged that the class consists of the 9 named plaintiffs and 35 others, all economically deprived farm workers who entered into a contract with Pete Rocha, the named defendant, a farm labor contractor in Monterey County. Does I through X are also joined as defendants; they are asserted to be persons, corporations, and business associations in Monterey, the agents of their codefendants and acting within the scope of their authority in performing the acts described. ²

The complaint continues: these representations were false in that six of the named plaintiffs and all others similarly situated were summarily discharged without explanation three hours after they began work and the three remaining named plaintiffs and all others similarly situated were discharged within three days. It was obvious that defendant had transported to the Monterey site more workers than he could utilize since there was only one harvesting machine available for use. Defendant had hired the 44 plaintiffs in Los Angeles and transported them nearly 400 miles with the undisclosed plan of discharging all but the best qualified. Defendant also falsely represented that return transportation to Los Angeles would be provided at the conclusion of the job, that the camp at the job site was clean, and that television sets would be available for plaintiffs' use. Plaintiffs justifiably relied on defendant's representations, were ignorant of their falsity, and were induced to enter into contracts with defendant in reliance thereon.

The first cause of action alleges that defendant made the representations in order to defraud plaintiffs and to induce them to travel from Los Angeles to Monterey County for the purpose of engaging in agricultural labor. Compensatory damages of $1,000 ³ and punitive damages of $1,000 are sought on behalf of each plaintiff.

The second cause of action asserts that at the time defendant made the representations he did not have any information regarding the length of time the work would be available. The prayer seeks $500 in compensatory damages and $1,000 in punitive damages.

The third cause of action alleges that plaintiffs entered into an oral agreement with defendant for employment for the period and compensation set forth above, that they performed all the conditions of the contract but defendant refused to permit them to complete their performance, and they seek $207.90 each, the wages to which each of them allegedly would have been entitled if defendant had carried out his obligation under the agreement.

Defendant filed a general and special demurrer on the grounds inter alia that the three causes of action did not constitute a proper class action, that there was a misjoinder of parties, and that the superior court had no jurisdiction of the subject matter of the action. The trial court sustained the demurrer on the ground that no class action was stated because there was no ascertainable class with the same community of interest. The court recited as its rationale for this conclusion that each member of the alleged class would be required to show he relied on the representations made and that separate bases might exist for the discharge of each class member. ⁴ The action was transferred to the municipal court, apparently because the damages sought were below the amount required for the jurisdiction of the superior court if the suit could not proceed as a class action. (See Cal.Const., art. VI, § 10; Code Civ.Proc., § 89.)

We review the complaint pursuant to the well settled rule that a general demurrer admits the truth of all material factual allegations therein, that the ability of plaintiffs to prove the allegations is not considered by the reviewing court and that plaintiffs need only plead facts indicating they may be entitled to some relief. (Alcorn v. Anbro Engineering, Inc. (1970) 2 Cal.3d 493, 496, 86 Cal.Rptr. 88, 468 P.2d 216.)

The trial court's ruling preceded our decision in Vasquez v. Superior Court (1971) 4 Cal.3d 800, 94 Cal.Rptr. 796, 484 P.2d 964. In Vasquez the asserted class consisted of a group of consumers who had purchased merchandise under installment contracts and sought rescission of the contracts because of fraudulent misrepresentations. We held that the trial court erred in sustaining a demurrer to the complaint, that a class action was properly alleged since the class members were ascertainable, and that they should be given an opportunity to demonstrate a community of interest. Among the elements which the plaintiffs were required to prove in Vasquez was their reliance upon representations made to them by the defendants. We concluded that an inference of reliance arises if a material false representation was made to the plaintiffs whose acts thereafter were consistent with reliance upon the representations.

The Vasquez principles are controlling in the case at hand. The complaint alleges that the members of the class are readily ascertainable, and plaintiffs' indication that both the Farm Labor office and defendant's records would reveal the identity of each member of the class remains undenied. ⁵ As to the issue of reliance, the complaint alleges that plaintiffs were gathered together to learn the details of the job with defendant and that the representations were made at that time. If the representations were in fact made at one time and one place to all class members, and if they thereupon simultaneously accepted employment, a persuasive inference that each of them relied upon the representations arises without separate proof of reliance by each plaintiff.

The second reason given by the trial court for sustaining the demurrer was that there was no community of interest since separate questions might exist as to the reason for the discharge of each class member. The complaint alleges, however, that defendant deliberately hired more farm workers than he required, representing that the work would last one or two weeks, transported them nearly 400 miles, and discharged all but the best qualified within three hours or three days of their arrival. The gravamen of these allegations is that defendant did not intend to comply with the original representations as to the duration of the work and that he deliberately recruited more workers than the harvesting justified, determining in advance to discharge the excess before the specified period had elapsed. If these allegations are established by evidence at trial, there would be no rational doubt as to the reason underlying the discharge of each class member.

Defendant maintains also that a class action is inappropriate because each purported class member is claiming damages of more than $3,700 and, therefore, it would be practical to file a separate suit on behalf of each plaintiff. However, the actual maximum amount sought by each class member is not $3,700.00, but $2,207.90. ⁶ In Vasquez we indicated that while the impracticability of bringing an individual action for comparatively small potential recovery was a consideration in favor of permitting a class action, the converse was not necessarily controlling, i.e., the possibility of a potential recovery for each class member larger than a nominal sum does not militate against the maintenance of such an...