Courts have been and likely always will be reluctant to strike class allegations or deny class certification before class discovery. Indeed, over-aggressive attempts to strike class allegations can often do more harm than good when the court, in denying a motion to strike, gives the plaintiff a roadmap of how to proceed at the class certification stage. Custom photography company Shutterfly was recently reminded of that tendency when a California district court denied ... Keep Reading »
Striking of Class Allegations Articles
The latest striking of class allegations developments and trends, including news, key cases, and strategies.
Ninth Circuit Says Local Rule 90-Day Deadline to File Class Certification Motion Incompatible With Federal Rule 23
In a case with potentially nationwide ramifications, the Ninth Circuit reversed a California district court’s decision striking a motion for class certification as untimely, finding the district court’s local rule requiring class certification motions be filed within 90 days of the complaint was inconsistent with Federal Rule of Civil Procedure Rule 23. Several other districts, including the Northern District of Georgia, the Northern District of Texas, and the Middle ... Keep Reading »
Reservation Canceled! Court Strikes Class Allegations Against American Airlines
The Northern District of Illinois recently granted defendant American Airlines’ motion to strike class allegations in a passenger’s breach of contract suit brought after American cancelled plaintiff’s flight reservation when he attempted to check in less than an hour before the scheduled departure time. The court found it was clear from the pleadings that plaintiff’s proposed nationwide class could not meet the predominance requirement of Rule 23(b)(3). In particular, ... Keep Reading »
Enough is Enough: The Limits of Invoking Rule 23(c)(1)(C)
On September 4, Judge Rogers of the Northern District of California granted defendants’ motion to strike plaintiffs’ second renewed motion for class certification. The motion was filed by indirect purchaser plaintiffs in this lithium ion batteries antitrust litigation. The “second renewed motion,” which was in fact a third motion for class certification, cited Rule 23(c)(1)(C) as authority. Plaintiffs did not seek leave to file this third motion. In striking the ... Keep Reading »
SCOTUS Holds American Pipe Tolling Does Not Apply to Securities Class Action Opt-Out Claims Filed Outside Repose Period: CalPERS v. ANZ Securities, Inc.
We have blogged about the evolution and application of the American Pipe tolling rule, as further expanded by Crown Cork, many times (here, here, here, and here), most recently following the Ninth Circuit’s Resh decision last month (here and here). Under American Pipe, individual claims of unnamed class members in a previously dismissed action may proceed as a subsequently filed class action after the limitations period would otherwise have expired. Today, we switch ... Keep Reading »
Game Over – SCOTUS Holds a Voluntary Dismissal With Prejudice Is Not a Viable Means to Appeal a Denial of Class Certification
A group of plaintiffs hoped to hit the reset button on the Ninth Circuit’s denial of their Rule 23(f) petition to appeal from an order striking class allegations in their case against Microsoft, the maker of the popular Xbox line of videogame consoles. Plaintiffs, who alleged their Xbox 360 consoles had a tendency to scratch game discs, attempted this reset by appealing the certification order after taking a voluntary dismissal of their putative class action with ... Keep Reading »
More Bad News for Uber, This Time From the Southern District of California
Uber’s attempts to defeat a false advertising lawsuit recently failed. The Southern District of California largely denied the ride share company’s motion to dismiss and motion to strike class allegations. A taxi company claimed Uber violated the Lanham Act with allegedly false and misleading statements concerning passenger safety that compared Uber and traditional taxicab rides. The court narrowly granted the motion to dismiss regarding Uber’s claim that certain ... 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 »
A Tale of Two Orders: Different Results for Motions to Strike Class Allegations
The Southern District of California and the Northern District of Illinois recently entered orders addressing motions to strike class allegations—with very different results for the respective defendants. Although the claims and facts at issue in each case may warrant the different results, a contrast in approaches is evident. In Kim v. Shellpoint Partners, LLC, No. 15CV611-LAB (BLM), 2016 WL 1241541 (S.D. Cal. Mar. 30, 2016), the Southern District of California ... Keep Reading »
2016 Carlton Fields Class Action Survey Reveals Important Trends in Class Action Management
The fifth annual edition of the Carlton Fields Class Action Survey has just been released, and in this year’s survey corporate counsel report that class action spending has increased after four consecutive years of decline. Spending is also projected to increase in 2016. This marks a key turning point. The Numbers Across industries, the companies surveyed report that they spent $2.1 billion on class action lawsuits in 2015. The number of companies facing at least one ... Keep Reading »