In two recent cases, California and Florida district courts reached divergent views on whether to permit wide-ranging class discovery prior to a certification decision. Interestingly, both decisions involved Ocwen companies. In Weiner, a RICO class action, the class plaintiffs sought discovery of defendants’ “internal communications relating to their decision to spin-off” a subsidiary because those communications ostensibly bore on “classwide intent to fraudulently ... Keep Reading »
Eleventh Circuit Clarifies CAFA Jurisdiction Continues After Dismissal of Class Claims
On November 22, the Eleventh Circuit clarified that Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) jurisdiction is not eliminated when the class claims are dismissed before the class is certified. The plaintiff, an Alabama trucking company that had a fuel-discount with Pilot, filed a class action alleging that Pilot systematically shortchanged trucking companies with which it had discount arrangements by failing to give them the agreed-upon benefits. The class claims were ... Keep Reading »
Spokeo Gets Lyft Off
The Northern District of California dismissed a Fair Credit Reporting Act case against Lyft upon finding that plaintiff lacked Article III standing based on the Supreme Court's decision in Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins, 136 S. Ct. 1540 (2016). The court found that plaintiff did not suffer any actual injury, or a real threat of such injury, as a result of Lyft’s alleged FCRA violations. The court’s ruling was consistent with several recent district courts’ decisions based on ... Keep Reading »
Third Circuit Applies Presumption of Timeliness to Pre-Certification Motion to Intervene as Class Representative
This case concerned a federal antitrust class action involving a proposed class of Class 8 truck purchasers who alleged a conspiracy by several truck transmission suppliers and manufacturers to raise prices by eliminating competition among the manufacturers. At the class certification stage, defendants moved to dismiss the named plaintiff for lack of standing since it was not a direct purchaser of the truck transmissions at issue. Two months later, the named plaintiff’s ... Keep Reading »
Third Circuit Creates Framework for Analyzing Numerosity
The Third Circuit recently vacated class certification, granted by the Eastern District of Pennsylvania after nearly a decade of litigation, in an antitrust case alleging that a pharmaceutical company entered into agreements with four generic drug makers that, acting together, delayed the sale of generic drugs and prevented the creation of a competitive market. In the second part of its panel opinion regarding predominance under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(b)(3), ... Keep Reading »
District Courts Find Impermissible “Fail-Safe” Class Definitions But Deny Motions to Strike Class Allegations
Two recent decisions from the Eastern District of Illinois involving the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), decided a day apart, provided valuable insight as how this court will respond to motions to strike class allegations that include impermissible “fail-safe” class definitions. Although both courts found that plaintiffs proposed fail-safe classes, the courts denied defendants’ respective motions to strike class allegations and provided plaintiffs leave to ... Keep Reading »
Nothing Shady Where State Statutory Language Restricting Class Actions is Clear
Six years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court stated in a plurality opinion that "Rule 23 unambiguously authorizes any plaintiff, in any federal proceeding, to maintain a class action if the Rule's requirements are met" -- even if the same case could not be brought as a class action under state law. Shady Grove Orthopedic Accos., P.A. v. Allstate Ins. Co., 559 U.S. 393, 406 (2010). While the Shady Grove ruling may seem clear when the conflicting state law is purely procedural, ... Keep Reading »
California Court Applies Strict Scrutiny to Reject Uber Class Settlement
A Northern District of California judge refused to preliminarily approve a class settlement of Uber customers who used its “Rideshare Services” in which Uber would have paid class members $28.5 million. The court was concerned about several things. First, the settlement divided the settlement fund among class members on a per capita basis, which resulted in the compensation of some members who weren’t injured at the expense of persons who had been injured. Second, ... Keep Reading »
Ninth Circuit Affirms Certification of “No Injury” Wage and Hour Class
On August 31, the Ninth Circuit continued its trend of certifying “no injury” classes, this time in the context of an Agricultural Workers’ Protection Act claim that a Washington state fruit and vegetable farm violated the statute by hiring foreign workers to fill temporary agricultural jobs without informing domestic workers of the availability of the work. The district court certified an “inaccurate information” class and an “equal pay” class. The Ninth Circuit ... Keep Reading »
Disgruntled Timeshare Owner’s Bid for Class Arbitration Thwarted
On August 30, the Northern District of California thwarted a disgruntled timeshare owner’s attempt to arbitrate her dispute against a timeshare developer on a classwide basis. A timeshare purchaser alleged that Wyndham, the timeshare developer, improperly changed her “use year” and demanded an arbitration. Wyndham responded by filing a declaratory judgment action against the purchaser and also filed a motion to compel the purchaser to arbitrate her individual claims and ... Keep Reading »
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