On the same day that the Supreme Court decided Pioneer Electronics, the Court of Appeal (Second Appellate District, Division Three) handed down First American Title Ins. Co. v. Superior Court (Sjobring), ___ Cal.App.4th ___ (Jan. 25, 2007), which relates to pre-certification discovery in a somewhat different context:
If a class action representative plaintiff is not – and never was – a member of the class he purports to represent, may he obtain precertification discovery from the defendants for the express purpose of identifying a member of the class who is willing to become a named plaintiff and pursue the action? As the current plaintiff is, in effect, a stranger to the action, we conclude the grant of such discovery would sanction an abuse of the class action procedure. We therefore conclude the trial court’s order granting the discovery was an abuse of discretion, and grant the defendants’ petition for writ relief.
Slip op. at 2.
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