(Surprising) California Supreme Court activity for the week of May 14, 2012

The California Supreme Court held its (usually) weekly conference on May 16, 2012.  Highly notable results include:

• Review was granted in Duran v. U.S. Bank National Association (February 6, 2012). The Court of Appeal reversed a trial verdict for a class of managers claiming misclassification and decertified the class.  The case was covered on this blog here.  I would have put the odds on obtaining review at zero when I wrote about Duran in February.  But, after reading Brinker, there were a number of comments suggesting that the Supreme Court might support the forms of sampling evidence used in the Duran trial.  Of course, review may also have been granted to clarify that decertification by the Court of Appeal was inappropriate, with the better approach being to remand for a new trial and reconsideration of the certification question by the trial court.  All that speculation aside, I am shocked, SHOCKED, to find that review was granted here.  Of course, it is also possible that the Petition for Review, which I have not seen, paints a decidedly different picture than the one presented by the Court of Appeal.