Following McGhan Medical Corp. v. Superior Court (1992) 11 Cal.App.4th 804, this decision holds that the standard for reviewing the de novo standard of review governs both the initial decision to coordinate cases and a subsequent decision on a motion to add-on more cases. It also holds that in ruling on a motion to add-on more cases, a judge cannot revisit the original decision to coordinate the case, so that if the proposed add-on cases are essentially the same as the originally coordinated ones, the add-on motion should be granted. Here, the coordination trial judge committed error in denying the add-on motion based on his finding that lemon law cases were not suitable for coordination. Not only was he wrong, but that decision had already been made the other way when the original cases were coordinated.
California Court of Appeal, Second District, Division 8 (Grimes, J.; Flier, J., concurring); May 8, 2017; 2017 WL 1832221