Supreme Court Denies Review of Post-Judgment Certification Case

Last July, we discussed a landlord-tenant case with a novel class certification twist (Justices: Are You Serious?). In Ortiz v. Lyon Management Group, Inc., the defendant won a summary judgment motion, before hearing any class certification motion was heard. Hoping to apply res judicata to any similar future claims by any putative class members, the defendant moved for certification, seeking to force the vanquished plaintiff to serve as an unwilling class representative on a doomed claim, and to serve a notice to class members informing them that they were bound by the loss of the uncertified class. The Superior Court denied the motion. The Court of Appeal affirmed the denial (No Post-Judgment Class Certification Orders) in Ortiz v. Lyon Management Group, Inc. (2007) 157 Cal.App.4th 604. Finally, now, the Supreme Court has denied review (sought by the plaintiff, and presumably limited to the review of the underlying judgment, rather than the post-judgment orders), and several requests for depublication were also denied.