Judge: Robert B. Broadbelt, Case: 22STCP01142, Date: 2022-12-14 Tentative Ruling

Tentative rulings are sometimes, but not always, posted. The purpose of posting a tentative ruling is to to help focus the argument. The posting of a tentative ruling is not an invitation for the filing of additional papers shortly before the hearing.

Case Number: 22STCP01142    Hearing Date: December 14, 2022    Dept: 53

Superior Court of California

County of Los Angeles – Central District

Department 53

Order to Show Cause re: why the case should not be reclassified as a limited case because the amount in controversy does not exceed $25,000 pursuant to CCP sections 403.040 and 85

DISCUSSION

Appellant RSA Talent Management, LLC (“RSA Talent”) filed this action in court on March 29, 2022, by filing its Notice of Appeal of the Order, Decision or Award of the Labor Commissioner against respondent Dominic Friesen (“Friesen”).  Friesen is represented by the Labor Commissioner pursuant to Labor Code section 98.4.

On September 13, 2022, the court set the pending Order to Show Cause re: why the case should not be reclassified as a limited case because the amount in controversy does not exceed $25,000 pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure sections 403.040 and 85.  The court ordered that any response to the Order to Show Cause shall be filed and served no later than nine court days before the hearing.

Pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure section 85, “a proceeding may not be treated as a limited civil action unless all of the following conditions are satisfied: (a) the amount in controversy does not exceed $25,000; (b) the relief sought is a type that may be granted in a limited civil case; and (c) the relief sought is exclusively of a type described in the statutes, including section 86, that classify an action as a limited civil case or that provide the action is within the jurisdiction of a court presiding over limited civil cases.”  (Ytuarte v. Superior Court (2005) 129 Cal.App.4th 266, 275.) 

“Whether an action qualifies as a limited or unlimited civil action is determined initially from the prayer or demand for relief in the plaintiff's complaint.”  (Ytuarte, supra, 129 Cal.App.4th at p. 274.)  “[A] matter may be reclassified as a limited civil action ‘when (i) the absence of jurisdiction is apparent before trial from the complaint, petition, or related documents, or (ii) during the course of pretrial litigation, it becomes clear that the matter will ‘necessarily’ result in a verdict below the superior court’s jurisdictional amount ….’”  (Id. at pp. 276-277, quoting Walker v. Superior Court (1991) 53 Cal.3d 257, 279.)  In other words, a superior court cannot reclassify a case “as limited (and thus keep the matter in the unlimited civil court) unless it appears to a legal certainty that the plaintiff’s damages will necessarily be less than $25,000.”  (Ytuarte v. Superior Court, supra, 129 Cal.App.4th at p. 277.)  “This standard of ‘legal certainty’ is not met when it appears a verdict within the unlimited court’s jurisdiction is ‘possible.’”  (Ibid.)

Upon consideration of the papers filed in this action, the court finds that RSA Talent’s appeal from the Order, Decision, or Award of the Labor Commissioner will necessarily result in a judgment in an amount that does not exceed $25,000.  RSA Talent appealed from the Labor Commissioner’s award of $3,653.75 to Friesen, and Friesen’s underlying claim with the Labor Commissioner claimed only $24,170.97.  (March 20, 2022 Order, Decision, or Award of Labor Commissioner, pp. 13:17-22 [awarding $3,653.75 to Friesen], 1:10-2:5 [setting forth the amounts claimed by Friesen in the initial claim with the Labor Commissioner’s office].)  The Labor Commissioner’s Order, Decision, or Award that is appealed from is an award of $3,653.75, and no party has filed a response to the Order to Show Cause contending that Friesen seeks an amount greater than the $24,170.97 claimed by Friesen in the underlying proceeding.  Accordingly, the court finds that RSA Talent’s appeal will necessarily result in a judgment that does not exceed $25,000.

The court therefore finds that this case shall be treated as a limited civil case because the amount in controversy does not exceed $25,000.  (Code Civ. Proc., § 85.)  The court orders that this case is reclassified as a limited civil case pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure section 403.040, subdivision (a).  The court orders that this case shall be transferred to a department of the Los Angeles Superior Court to which limited civil cases are assigned.  No reclassification fee is required.  (Code Civ. Proc., § 403.040, subd. (c)(2).)

The court orders that all future hearing dates set on Department 53’s calendar in this case are vacated and shall be reset in the new courtroom to which the case is transferred.

The court orders respondent Dominic Friesen to give notice of this ruling.

IT IS SO ORDERED.

DATED:  December 14, 2022

_____________________________

Robert B. Broadbelt III

Judge of the Superior Court