Speaking of appellate practice, the Court of Appeal (Second Appellate District, Division Seven) also issued a rare published opinion on Wednesday dismissing an appeal for lack of appellate jurisdiction because the order purportedly appealed from—reclassifying the case from "unlimited" to "limited" jurisdiction—was not appealable. Garau v. Torrance Unified School Dist., ___ Cal.App.4th ___ (Mar. 1, 2006). The Court rejected the argument that "the reclassification order here is in effect an appealable 'final judgment' because the transfer to the limited jurisdiction department of the superior court eliminated the right to appellate review of [two] dismissed causes of action …," pointing out that review was available either through a writ proceeding or through an appeal from the final judgment dismissing the two claims. (Slip op. at 2.)
Although the case was not a class action, the opinion contains an interesting discussion of one of the leading class action decisions, Daar v. Yellow Cab Co., 67 Cal.2d 695 (1967):
The Daar Court’s primary concern was the demurrer and the fate of the dismissed class plaintiffs. Those dismissed plaintiffs were directly aggrieved by the order sustaining the demurrer as it removed them from the case and terminated the action as to the class. The class plaintiffs’ case was final irrespective of the transfer to the municipal court. Once dismissed these class plaintiffs could not have sought writ review of the transfer order under the former section 400 because their case was over and they were no longer parties in the remaining transferred action. The Daar Court’s decision to characterize the order sustaining the demurrer a final judgment is based on the recognition that absent an immediate right to appeal, those plaintiffs would lose all opportunity to obtain review of the order dismissing them from the action. Thus, in our view Daar involves a unique situation concerning class action claims, recognizing the right to an immediate appeal for dismissed class claimants. In fact, subsequent case law interpretations of Daar indicate the legacy of the case is not that reclassification/transfer orders are, standing alone, appealable final orders. Instead, Daar is cited as the original authority for an exception to the one-final judgment rule for certain “death knell” orders relating to class actions.(Slip op. at 9-10 n.8 (emphasis added).) The lesson I would draw from that discussion is that orders tantamount to denial of class certification—such as an order dismissing one or more class claims at the pleading stage—are immediately appealable.