Last week, the Sixth Circuit affirmed a trial court’s decision striking class allegations where a proposed nationwide class would necessarily invoke the laws of fifty different jurisdictions. (Russell Jackson has an excellent writeup of the opinion here.) There is no question the opinion is a useful one for defendants. And, since it’s the first
typicality
Classic Cases – General Telephone Company of the Southwest v. Falcon
By The Editors on
Posted in Certification
In July 1969, General Telephone Company of the Southwest hired Mariano Falcon, a Mexican-American, as part of minority recruitment effort. Falcon maintained a good employment record until, “[i]n October 1972 he applied for the job of field inspector; his application was denied even though the promotion was granted several white employees with less seniority.” Dissatisfied…
Investment Strategies and Securities Class Actions
By The Editors on
Posted in Certification, Discovery
I’ve talked before about the problem of circularity in securities class actions. Briefly put:
[A] securities class action takes money from the firm, and pays it to the shareholders, minus costs and attorneys’ fees. The hitch is that the firm is owned by the shareholders, which means that the attorneys have just taken money
…
Defending Pseudo-Fraud Cases – Noel v. Hudd Dist Servs. Inc.
By The Editors on
Posted in Certification
In the last few years, statutory non-disclosure have become more common among class-action filings. They allow the plaintiffs to assert fraud-like claims that can arouse public (or judicial) sympathy, without necessarily having to worry about proving individualized reliance the way they would if they had alleged a common-law fraud claim.
A recent case, Noel v.
Adequacy, Typicality, and Credibility – CE Design v. King Architectural Metals
By The Editors on
Posted in Certification
King Architectural Metals manufactured metal building components, which it needed to sell. It made the mistake of faxing an advertisement to CE Design. It probably seemed like a good idea at the time. CE Design was a small, Chicago-area civil engineering firm, and it had checked a box in the Blue Book of Building and…
The Uses of the Named Plaintiff Deposition
By The Editors on
Posted in Discovery
Depositions are one of the most important parts of class discovery. (And for many lawyers, they’re also the most fun.) Since so few class actions go to trial, a deposition of a named plaintiff is when the defense lawyer finally gets to act like a lawyer on TV, confronting the named plaintiff with evidence…
Classic Cases – Sprague v. General Motors Corp.
By The Editors on
Posted in Certification
The final "classic case" for now, Sprague v. General Motors Corp. involved an alleged violation of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). The plaintiffs had sued GM claiming that it had not provided them with the fully "paid up" lifetime healthcare benefits it had promised when it convinced them to…
Never Assume Commonality – Gaston v. Exelon Corp.
By The Editors on
Posted in Certification
Commonality is rarely the subject of much discussion in class certification. The plaintiff often treats it as a perfunctory hurdle, subsumed into the more difficult questions of predominance (under Rule 23(b)(3)) or cohesiveness (under Rule 23(b)(2)). But, much like numerosity, commonality is a requirement that may reward careful scrutiny when a defendant opposes class certification.…