Sav-on Drug Stores, Inc. v. Superior Court, 34 Cal. 4th 319 (2004)

Plaintiffs in this case sought to certify a class of between 600 and 1,400 current and former operating managers and assistant managers of Savon Drug Stores. The managers contended that they had been misclassified as employees exempt from overtime in that they spent more than 50 percent of their time doing non-exempt work. Although the trial court certified the class, the court of appeal issued a writ of mandate commanding the lower court to vacate its order on the ground that common issues did not predominate among the proposed class members. The California Supreme Court reversed the court of appeal and held that although it was not deciding the merits of plaintiffs’ case, in the class certification context, "common issues may be present when a defendant’s tortious acts, as here, allegedly are the same with regard to each plaintiff."