Leonard

This case involves how a limited civil case (here a cross-complaint) gets reclassified as an unlimited civil case.

We hold that where petitioner Kathleen Leonard filed, through counsel, an amended cross-complaint that added a cross-defendant and added causes of action that increased the amount in controversy to over $25,000 and tried' twice to pay the court clerk the reclassification fee, the trial court was required to reclassify the case.

Here, however, the trial court refused to reclassify the case and went on to deny Leonard’s later-filed motion for reclassification, a motion that was unnecessary because the trial court should have already reclassified the case (and in any event, the motion was the inappropriate vehicle by which to change the classification here). We therefore grant Leonard’s petition and issue a peremptory writ of mandate directing the trial court to reclassify the case upon Leonard paying the reclassification fee, if she has not already done so.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

The underlying lawsuit in this case, Retailers’ Credit Association of Grass Valley, Inc. v. Leonard, was filed January 6, 2012, by real party in interest Retailers’…