Richmond

—Plaintiffs Harold Richmond and his class of 2,600 purchasers of land at Tahoe-Donner subdivision appeal from a judgment entered in favor of defendant Dart Industries, Inc., following a four month jury trial. The jury returned a general verdict for defendant on plaintiffs’ claims that defendant committed fraud and violated the Subdivided Lands Act (Bus. & Prof. Code, § 11000 et seq.) by misrepresenting the availability of water and sewer services at Tahoe-Donner. (All further statutory references are to the Business and Professions Code unless otherwise indicated.) Following the jury verdict the trial court declined to rule on plaintiffs’ 10th cause of action premised upon the Unfair Practices Act (§ 17200 et seq.). Faced with the same arguments asserted here, the trial court also refused to enter a judgment notwithstanding the verdict.

Plaintiffs contend that uncontroverted evidence establishes defendant violated the Subdivided Lands Act as a matter of law. Plaintiffs also contend the trial court erroneously found that they waived a court trial of their 10th cause of action. In this published portion of the opinion, we hold that plaintiffs waived the principal theory of…