It's easy to say that California courts look to Rule 23 decisions for guidance when there is a gap in California's jurisprudence on class-related issues.  But how that works out in practice is a different matter.  In Fierro v. Landry's Restaurant Inc. (May 14, 2018), the Court of Appeal (Fourth Appellate District, Division One) waded into uncharted procedural terrain when they sorted out how American Pipe tolling interacts with California's different procedural approach to certification as a "death knell" versus interlocutory issue.  The core of the American Pipe application issue is captured by the Court's discussion of how federal and state procedure differ:

In the federal system, because there can be no appellate review of an order denying class certification until after entry of a final judgment in the class action, there can be years of delay—including potentially a trial on the merits of the individual claims—before the parties have the benefit of appellate review of the denial of class certification. Under such a procedure, the policy of protecting the efficiency and economy of litigation is not furthered by the continuation of tolling—first, pending resolution of the remaining claims in the trial court and, then, pending review and disposition in the appellate court.

In contrast, in our state system, the death knell doctrine allows the parties the benefit of immediate appellate review of an order denying class certification. This procedure advances the efficiency and economy of class action litigation. Stated differently, neither efficiency nor economy will result if, upon the denial of class certification, an unnamed class member is required either to seek intervention in the individual action that remains in the trial court or to file a new action while an immediate appeal of the order denying class certification is pending. Thus, in both the state and federal systems, once the trial court denies certification, the putative class member is on notice that he or she must take action to protect his or her rights; however, in the state system, there is a right to immediate review of that decision, and to deny American Pipe tolling under such circumstances is to encourage a multiplicity of actions—i.e., to encourage inefficiency and expense—before the order denying class certification is final

Slip op., at 20. The Court's effort to get under the hood and examine how policy interacts with procedural differences is commendable.

Separately, this case presents an unusual procedural history in its own right, as the Court had to engage in some very proactive digging to try to get as complete a record as it could and still fell short of getting all of what it wanted.

Appellants were successfully represented by  Matthew Righetti and John J. Glugoski of Righetti Glugoski.