Under what circumstances can a plaintiff who seeks injunctive relief on behalf of a class of which the plaintiff is not a member obtain precertification discovery to seek out a legitimate plaintiff to support an action for injunctive relief and monetary damages? Here, real party in interest Charlene Deluca filed a complaint under the alleging defendants CVS Pharmacy, Inc., and Longs Drug Stores California, LLC (CVS), have a corporate policy of automatically terminating employees who do not work any hours for 45 consecutive days. Deluca sought injunctive relief to challenge the policy, which she argued discriminated against qualified individuals with disabilities in violation of the California Fair Employment and Housing Act. (FEHA; Gov. Code, § 12900 et seq.) Deluca, an employee of Longs, was not disabled, nor had she been terminated under the alleged 45-day policy. CVS demurred to Deluca’s complaint. The trial court sustained CVS’s demurrer based on Deluca’s lack of standing and dismissed her individually without leave to amend, but granted 90 days’ leave to amend for Deluca to find a substitute plaintiff and granted her motion to compel discovery of the names and contact information of current and former CVS employees. CVS filed a petition for writ of mandate challenging the trial court’s ruling. We issued an alternative writ of mandate. We find the trial court abused its discretion in allowing the proposed precertification discovery.
The case is CVS Pharmacy v. Super. Ct. (CA3 C077622, filed 9/15/15, pub. ord. 10/15/15)
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