Section 17535

Citation: Section 17535
Parent Document: Kraus v. Trinity Management Services, Inc., 999 P.2d 718 (2000)
Jurisdiction: California (state)
Effective Date: 2000-06-05
Original Source: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/1159700/kraus-v-trinity-management-serv... ↗

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This court itself employed a fluid recovery device, as the majority’s own authority notes,4 as early as 1946. In Market St. Ry. Co. v. Railroad Commission (1946) 28 Cal.2d 363 [171 P.2d 875] (Market St. Ry. Co:), not a class action, a fund of money was established representing overcharges made by a *155street railway company. In staying a fare rollback ordered by the Railroad Commission, we had required the railway company to post a bond and deposit with the court certain securities against the need to make refunds in the event that we might ultimately affirm the Railroad Commission’s decision. When few eligible patrons filed refund claims, we did not return the money to the railway company, but instead awarded it to the City of San Francisco which, having recently purchased the railway, would, we noted, use the funds for the benefit of railway patrons, generally. (Id. at pp. 371-373.) In ordering such distribution, we invoked our “power and the responsibility of protecting the fund and of disposing of it in accordance with the applicable principles of law and equity for the protection of the litigants and the public whose interests are affected by the final disposition thereof.” (Id. at p. 367.) We also noted this court’s freedom, “in the discharge of that duty and responsibility, to use broad discretion in the exercise of its powers so as to avoid an unlawful or unjust result.” (Ibid., citing United States v. Morgan (1939) 307 U.S. 183, 194 [59 S.Ct. 795, 801, 83 L.Ed. 1211].) In Levi Strauss, supra, 41 Cal.3d 460, we noted that Market St. Ry. Co., supra, 28 Cal.2d 363, “though not a class action, provides an example” of one “form of fluid distribution” (41 Cal.3d at p. 474), thus recognizing that fluid recovery, as a remedial device, is not necessarily confined to class actions.

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