Hinojos v. Kohl's Corp., et al., No. 11-55793 (9th Cir. 2013)
Annotate this CasePlaintiff sued Kohl's Department Store claiming that he bought merchandise from Kohl's that he would not have purchased had he not been misled by advertisements stating that the merchandise was marked down from a fictitious "original" or "regular" price. At issue on appeal was whether plaintiff alleged that he "lost money or property" and, therefore, had statutory standing under California law to sue Kohl's to enforce California's prohibition on this deceptive marketing practice. In Kwikset Corp. v. Superior Court, the California Supreme Court held that all a consumer needed to allege to establish standing to bring an Unfair Competition Law (UCL), Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code 17200, et seq., or Fair Advertising Law (FAL), Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code 17500, et seq., claim was that (1) the defendant made a false representation about a product, (2) the consumer purchased the product in reliance on the misrepresentation, and (3) he would not have purchased the product otherwise. The court rejected defendant's argument that Kwikset was distinguishable because it involved a different type of unlawful misrepresentation than the one at issue here. Therefore, the court reversed the district court's dismissal of plaintiff's UCL and FAL claims. For nearly identical reasons, the court reversed the district court's dismissal of plaintiff's Consumer Legal Remedies Act (CLRA), Cal. Civ. Code 1750, et seq., claims. The court also denied defendant's motion to certify both on the merits and because of the circumstances attendant to its filing.
Court Description: California Law / Standing. The panel reversed the district court’s dismissal of claims under California’s Unfair Competition Law, Fair Advertising Law, and Consumer Legal Remedies Act brought by a plaintiff in a putative class action against Kohl’s Department Stores alleging false advertising. The panel applied the California Supreme Court’s holding in Kwikset Corp. v. Superior Court, 246 P.3d 877 (Cal. 2011), and held that when a consumer purchases merchandise on the basis of false price information, and when the consumer alleges that he would not have made the purchase but for the misrepresentation, he has standing to sue under the Unfair Competition Law and Fair Advertising Law because he has suffered an economic injury. The panel also reversed the district court’s dismissal of plaintiff’s Consumer Legal Remedies Act claims. Finally, the panel denied defendant’s motion to certify the issues to the California Supreme Court both on the merits and because of the circumstances attendant to its filing (where defendant only requested certification for the first time after oral argument). Judge Wardlaw concurred in the majority opinion, except that she concurred only as to the result in Part III, which denied Kohl’s request to certify the state law standing requirements for review by the California Supreme Court. Judge Wardlaw would simply deny the request as untimely.
The court issued a subsequent related opinion or order on July 8, 2013.
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