Stern v. Superior Court
California Court of Appeal
129 Cal. Rptr. 2d 275 (2003)
Boris Stern and other plaintiffs sued Kenneth Walheim and an accounting firm (defendants), alleging Walheim falsely claimed to be a certified public accountant, and pled several claims as proposed class actions. At an initial status conference, the plaintiffs admitted the class hadn't yet been certified, and with no evidence in the record beyond the complaint itself, the trial court reclassified the case as a limited civil action (California's category for cases with $25,000 or less in controversy) without giving the plaintiffs notice or a chance to present evidence on the amount in controversy. The plaintiffs appealed.
Whether a trial court must give the parties notice and an opportunity to contest reclassification before determining that a case falls below the jurisdictional amount for an unlimited civil action.