Section 17203

Citation: Section 17203
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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As noted earlier, fluid recovery in a class action was approved by the Court of Appeal in Bruno v. Superior Court, supra, 127 Cal.App.3d 120, 179 Cal.Rptr. 342, a private antitrust class action brought to recover damages for excessive milk prices. There the court cautioned that the law under which a damage action is brought might preclude fluid recovery (id. at p. 130, 179 Cal.Rptr. 342), but held that the Cartwright Act did allow that remedy. The court rejected an argument that section 16750, subdivision (a), precluded fluid recovery because the law authorized a person injured by reason of a forbidden practice to sue for and recover only the damages that person suffered and fluid recovery would permit recovery by persons who had not sustained damages. Reasoning that damages are recovered by the recovery of a judgment, not through subsequent distribution of the money, the court concluded that the only persons who would recover damages were the class members in whose favor judgment was entered, i.e., the class of consumer victims. (127 Cal.App.3d at p. 131, 179 Cal.Rptr. 342.) The court also held that the antitrust law did not reflect an intent that no damages could be recovered except those to be distributed to the persons injured and found legislative sanction for fluid recovery in section 16760, subdivision (c), which governed distribution of damages recovered in parens patriae actions brought by the Attorney General. Section 16760 provides for escheat to the state of any residue after individual claims, costs, and attorney fees were satisfied, and thus sanctions one form of fluid recovery.

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