Harper

*969 Opinion

Putative class representatives Bryan Harper and Mark Salzwedel appeal from the trial court’s order decertifying a limited class that had previously been recognized for their unfair competition claims under Business and Professions Code sections 17200 and 17500 (UCL claims) 1 challenging a form contract 24 Hour Fitness, Inc., used to enroll new members. Because the trial court’s decertification order is largely predicated on its erroneous legal assumptions concerning the scope of relief available in an individual action under sections 17200 and 17500, we reverse.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

1. The Dispute Regarding Membership Renewal Terms

24 Hour Fitness operates workout and health club facilities throughout California. From 1996 until 2000 24 Hour Fitness offered memberships to use its facilities under a form contract that authorized a prepaid membership with a guaranteed renewal rate, the V.9.96 contract. Harper and Salzwedel became 24 Hour Fitness members during this period and entered into prepaid, multiyear V.9.96 contracts.

The parties dispute the terms for the renewal period. Harper and Salzwedel contend the right to renew extended for three years,…

I respectfully dissent.

It is true the trial court, in concluding class treatment was no longer the superior method to the resolve the claims, made several observations about the availability of relief and remedies in representative actions that do not reflect the current state of the UCL (unfair competition law) in the post-Proposition-64 world. I am not convinced, however, that the trial court’s comments concerning the UCL warrant reversal of the decertification order in view of the arguments on appeal and history of this case. Likewise, as I shall explain, I agree with the trial court’s view that after five years of class status discovery it no longer appears that the individual class members share a community of interests. Accordingly, I would affirm the trial court’s decertification order.

1. Superiority of Class Treatment

The majority characterizes as a “significant factor” that “fundamentally undermines the trial court’s superiority analysis” (in the decertification order) the trial court’s belief that in a representative action the relief granted under the UCL, Business and Professions Code sections 17200 and 17500, may extend beyond the named parties and may include…

Putative class representatives Bryan Harper and Mark Salzwedel appeal from the trial court's order decertifying a limited class that had previously been recognized for their unfair competition claims under Business and Professions Code sections 17200 and 17500 (UCL claims) [1] challenging a form contract 24 Hour Fitness, Inc., used to enroll new members. Because the trial court's decertification order is largely predicated on its erroneous legal assumptions concerning the scope of relief available in an individual action under sections 17200 and 17500, we reverse.

24 Hour Fitness operates workout and health club facilities throughout California. From 1996 until 2000 24 Hour Fitness offered memberships to use its facilities under a form contract that authorized a prepaid membership with a guaranteed renewal rate, the V.9.96 contract. Harper and Salzwedel became 24 Hour Fitness members during this period and entered into prepaid, multiyear V.9.96 contracts.

The parties dispute the terms for the renewal period. Harper and Salzwedel contend the right to renew extended for three years, the same period as the term of their initial memberships; 24 Hour Fitness…