The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia denied plaintiffs’ motion for nationwide class certification because the proposed class did not meet Rule 23’s commonality or predominance requirements. The putative class plaintiffs had entered into agreements granting them rights to distribute the defendant’s cars in the United States. The plaintiffs had paid the defendant’s “application” fees and, in some instances, prepared dealerships to receive new ... Keep Reading »
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Conflict of Contracts: SCOTUS Backs Courts Rather Than Arbitrators to Resolve
With its recent decision in Coinbase Inc. v. Suski, the U.S. Supreme Court held that when parties have agreed to two separate contracts, one sending arbitrability disputes to arbitration and the other sending arbitrability disputes to the courts, the courts must decide which contract governs. Suski involved a class action lawsuit against Coinbase Inc., a cryptocurrency trading platform. The plaintiffs in the suit were several participants in a sweepstakes hosted by ... Keep Reading »
Classified Monthly: A Roundup of Class Action Decisions From Federal Appellate Courts April 2024
The Roundup covers notable class action decisions each month from federal appellate courts, as well as notable Supreme Court class action cert petitions. Seventh Circuit In re Recalled Abbott Infant Formula Products Liability Litigation – This decision concerns Article III standing. The FDA warned consumers not to use baby formula produced at a certain Abbott facility during a certain period. Abbott voluntarily recalled some of the baby formula manufactured at ... Keep Reading »
Classified Monthly: A Roundup of Class Action Decisions From Federal Appellate Courts – March 2024
The Roundup covers notable class action decisions each month from federal appellate courts, as well as notable Supreme Court class action cert petitions. Second Circuit Behrens v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. – In this decision, the Second Circuit answered a question of first impression for that court: “whether the existence of subject-matter jurisdiction requires a district court to exercise it, even if it is invoked belatedly—on analogy to the rule that a party ... Keep Reading »
Classified Monthly: A Roundup of Class Action Decisions From Federal Appellate Courts – February 2024
The Roundup is a monthly publication that covers the previous month’s notable class action decisions from federal appellate courts, as well as notable Supreme Court cert petitions related to class actions. Third Circuit Barclift v. Keystone Credit Services, LLC – This decision concerns a putative class action asserting claims under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). The named plaintiff alleged that the defendant debt collector violated the FDCPA by ... Keep Reading »
Mark Cuban’s Cryptocurrency Conundrum: The Road to Filing Sanctions
Selecting a named plaintiff in a putative class action can be one of the most important, but overlooked, decisions that a plaintiff’s counsel makes. Picking the wrong plaintiff can lead to delay, dismissal of claims, denial of class certification in some circumstances, and motions for sanctions. The high-profile putative class action against Mark Cuban, the “Shark Tank” multimillionaire entrepreneur and owner of the Dallas Mavericks NBA team, illustrates all of these ... Keep Reading »
Class Action Survey: Baseless Claims a Common Concern for Corporate Counsel
Six out of 10 in-house counsel reported that the growth in baseless putative class actions poses a substantial risk to their companies. They describe these class actions as those that have no merit, but where the companies are forced to defend them nonetheless. Top legal decision-makers believe courts are becoming more lenient in allowing class actions to move forward, which creates a significant cost that is disproportionate to the merits of the claim. Almost one in ... Keep Reading »
Delivery in 30 Minutes or Less: Supreme Court Punts on Who Qualifies Under FAA Exemption for Interstate Commerce Workers
In Domino’s Pizza LLC v. Carmona, Domino’s petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to clarify whether drivers making only in-state deliveries of goods, ordered by in-state customers from an in-state warehouse, engaged in interstate or foreign commerce, exempting them from arbitration under Section 1 of the Federal Arbitration Act. The Supreme Court on October 17, 2022, granted Domino’s petition for certiorari, vacated the Ninth Circuit’s ruling allowing the drivers to ... Keep Reading »
Fitting a Square Plaintiff Into a Circle Class? No Can Do Says Florida Federal Court
A recent decision issued by Chief Judge Timothy J. Corrigan of the Middle District of Florida highlights a straightforward yet consequential class action principle: a plaintiff cannot serve as a class representative for a class to which he or she does not belong. The specific case is Gartrell v. J.J. Marshall & Associates Inc. In Gartrell, the plaintiff alleged that the defendant violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and the Florida Consumer ... Keep Reading »
Eleventh Circuit Approves Largest, Most Comprehensive Data Breach Recovery in U.S. History
On June 3, 2021, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed, with one caveat, the Northern District of Georgia’s approval of the settlement of the consolidated class actions against Equifax Inc. and its affiliates arising from the 2017 data privacy breach. The district court described the parties’ settlement as “the largest and most comprehensive recovery in a data breach case in U.S. history by several orders of magnitude.” Notably, the Federal Trade Commission, the ... Keep Reading »