Class Action

Review granted in Yabsley v. Cingular Wireless

By Kimberly A. Kralowec

On Thursday, November 19, 2009, the Supreme Court issued a "grant and hold" order in Yabsley v. Cingular Wireless, no. S716146, "pending consideration and disposition of a related issue in Loeffler v. Target Corp., S173972."  (Hyperlink added.)  Here is the statement of the issue:

Does article XIII, section 32 of the California Constitution or Revenue and Taxation Code section 6932 bar a consumer from filing a lawsuit against a retailer under the Unfair Competition Law (Bus. & Prof. Code sections 17200 et seq.) or the Consumers Legal Remedies Act (Civ. Code, section 1750 et seq.) alleging that the retailer charged sales tax on transactions that were not taxable?

This is the UCL "unlawful" prong case in which I thought the opinion contained several non-outcome-determinative errors.  That was the primary basis for my depublication request for CAOC, but it seems clear that review was granted because of the underlying tax law issue raised in the case, which is the same as the issue in Loeffler.  Either way, the opinion is no longer citable precedent.

For more on the case, including links to some of the briefs, see these blog posts. 

Full post as published by The UCL Practitioner on November 23, 2009 (boomark / email).