Section 17535

Citation: Section 17535
Parent Document: Kraus v. Trinity Management Services, Inc., 999 P.2d 718 (2000)
Jurisdiction: California (state)
Effective Date: 2000-06-05
Original Source: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/1159700/kraus-v-trinity-management-serv... ↗

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The Court of Appeal held that section 17203 authorizes an order for disgorgement *491 and/or restitution as relief ancillary to an injunction against an unfair trade practice, and that provision for payment into a fluid recovery fund is within the equitable power of the court regardless of whether the action is one by a private party or one by the Attorney General or a district attorney. The court did not address defendants' due process claims, holding only that through the UCL the Legislature had created a streamlined procedure by which to challenge unfair business practices, and that this case was not one in which a class action would be preferable.[8] The court approved establishment of a fluid recovery fund in a representative UCL action as a permissible exercise of the broad equitable power granted to the trial court by section 17203, relying in part on Fletcher v. Security Pacific National Bank (1979) 23 Cal.3d 442, 450, 153 Cal.Rptr. 28, 591 P.2d 51 (Fletcher), where this court commented on the importance of disgorgement as a deterrent. The Court of Appeal acknowledged that class actions might be superior to individual actions in circumstances such as those considered by the Court of Appeal in Bronco Wine Go. v. Frank A. Logoluso Farms (1989) 214 Cal.App.3d 699, 262 Cal.Rptr. 899 (Bronco Wine Co.), but deemed the issue before it to be simply whether the trial court should have certified the action as a class action.[9] Finding the circumstances in the instant case to be more analogous to those in one of its prior cases, Dean Witter Reynolds, Inc. v. Superior Court (1989) 211 Cal.App.3d 758, 259 Cal.Rptr. 789, the Court of Appeal concluded that the trial court was not required to certify this action as a class action before ordering disgorgement into a fluid recovery fund.

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