Sav-On Drug Stores, Inc. v. Superior Court, 97 Cal. App. 4th 1070, review granted by the Cal. Supreme Court (2002)

Plaintiffs alleged that Sav-On wrongfully failed to pay overtime wages to class members consisting of current and former employees who were classified as operating managers and assistant managers. After losing the class certification motion in the trial court, Sav-On petitioned the Court of Appeal for a writ of mandate to compel the trial court to deny class certification. The Court of Appeal granted the petition and issued the writ, directing the trial court to vacate its order granting class certification. The Court held that the trial court had abused its discretion in certifying the class because numerous and substantial questions relating to each individual member would have to be litigated and those individual questions predominated over the common questions that could have been jointly tried.