Standard Oil Co. of California v. Superior Court

This is the second time that Cartt v. Standard Oil, a consumer class action pending in the respondent court, has been before us. In Cartt v. Superior Court, 50 Cal.App.3d 960 [ 124 Cal.Rptr. 376 ], we set aside trial court orders concerning notice to plaintiff’s class and, in substance, ordered the trial court to fashion a form of notice likely to reach enough class members to preserve the integrity of the class action process.

After that decision, in November 1975, the trial court ordered notice by a single publication in “one of the news sections” of 36 newspapers in the Southern California area.

Trial was set for January 7, 1976, five years, eight months and eighteen days after the complaint was filed. The trial court order involved in the first writ matter had been made after hearings on February 3, February 6 and February 18, 1975. The January 7, 1976 trial date was set on the. assumption—not shared by Standard—that the previous proceedings in this court tolled the running of the five-year statute as of February 3, 1975. If so, a trial date of January 7, 1976 would have been within the five-year period.

Defendant Standard Oil disagreed that time was tolled as of…