First American Title Insurance v. Superior Court

If a class action representative plaintiff is not—and never was—a member of the class he purports to represent, may he obtain precertification discovery from the defendants for the express purpose of identifying a member of the class who is willing to become a named plaintiff and pursue the action? As the current plaintiff is, in effect, a stranger to the action, we conclude the grant of such discovery would sanction an abuse of the class action procedure. We therefore conclude the trial court’s order granting the discovery was an abuse of discretion, and grant defendants’ petition for writ relief.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

In February 2004, plaintiff Jeffrey Albert Sjobring bought a house. The house was not newly constructed; Sjobring bought it from its then current owners. Sjobring’s loan broker obtained a purchase money loan for Sjobring from Wilmington Finance. The seller’s real estate agent selected the escrow company and the title insurer, First American Title Insurance Company. Indeed, Sjobring had wanted to use a different title company, but the seller’s agent and the escrow company selected by the seller’s agent had been adamant about using First…