Procedural Posture

Plaintiff independent sales representatives petitioned for peremptory writs of mandate, challenging an order of the Superior Court for the County of Los Angeles (California), sustaining defendant cosmetics company's demurrers to several causes of action and striking the class allegations of the representatives' complaint, which alleged causes of action for fraudulent concealment, breach of contract, and unfair business practices, among others.

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Overview

The representatives sold beauty products for the company. The court held that the third amended complaint properly stated a claim for violation of the unfair and fraudulent prongs, but not the unlawful prong, of the unfair competition law (UCL), Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 17200. The complaint alleged that the company represented that it would ship and charge only for ordered products, and representatives could return unordered products for full credit, while in actuality the company's practice was to ship unordered products and refuse to grant credit for returned products, thus deceiving its sales representatives into accepting and paying for unordered products with the expectation their accounts would be credited in the future. The trial court erred in striking the representatives' class action allegations because it was impossible to read the complaint without understanding that the class alleged consisted of the company representatives who received unordered products, returned them, paid for them, and wanted a credit or a refund. The representatives were clearly typical of the class. No basis existed for the representatives' request to remand the case to a different trial judge.

Outcome

The court granted the petitions and reversed the trial court's order.