Two class actions attacked Los Angeles’s garbage fees assessed against apartment dwellers. The first one settled and to carry out the settlement, Los Angeles returned the money it had charged class members, including the plaintiffs in the second class action. Also, the injunctive relief provisions of the settlement barred Los Angeles from imposing similar overcharges in the future. This decision holds that as a result of these actions taken in the first class action, the plaintiffs in the second action had already received all the relief they sought in that second case for themselves and so no longer had standing to proceed with the action. Cases like Kagan v. Gibraltar Sav & Loan Assn. (1984) 35 Cal.3d 582 which prohibit “picking off” a class action plaintiff by granting him individual relief denied class members do not apply here since here the relief was granted pursuant to the terms of a class action settlement under which Los Angeles was compelled to pay the plaintiffs in the second suit since they had remained in the class certified in the first suit.
California Court of Appeal, Second District, Division 8 (Bigelow, P.J.); March 14, 2017; 2017 WL 977094