Welcome to the inaugural edition of Classified Monthly: A Roundup of Class Action Decisions from Federal Appellate Courts. The Roundup normally will arrive in your inbox the first week of each month and will cover the...more
The decision to grant or deny class certification is usually the most pivotal aspect of a putative class action. A denial of class certification frequently disposes of the case altogether, while a grant often leads to...more
One of the first significant class certification-related decisions of 2023 comes from the Fifth Circuit. While some trial courts hesitate to strike class action allegations on the pleadings, the district court here concluded...more
For businesses using independent contractor vendors, misclassification claims are usually well-suited for class certification. A plaintiff’s path toward certifying a class can be relatively smooth when all vendors of a...more
The Ninth Circuit recently addressed an issue that tends to arise frequently in class certification motion practice: how trial courts should apply the predominance requirement where appellate decisions have said that the need...more
Over the years, there have been very few class certification rulings in actions arising from data breach incidents. Of those that have been published, most have favored the defense....more
The en banc U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit's recent watershed decision in Olean Wholesale Grocery Cooperative Inc. v. Bumble Bee Foods LLC established several significant benchmarks for determining class...more
On August 30, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit issued a decision in Bais Yaakov of Spring Valley v. ACT, Inc. that addresses how plaintiffs can satisfy the predominance requirement in federal class...more
On April 6, 2021, the Ninth Circuit for the first time addressed a plaintiff’s burden to show predominance at the class certification stage. In Olean Wholesale Grocery Coop. v. Bumble Bee Foods LLC, the court joined the...more
On December 9, 2020, the Ninth Circuit issued an unpublished opinion affirming a California federal court’s denial of class certification in a lawsuit against dog food manufacturer Champion Petfoods (“Champion”). Among other...more
On July 23, 2020, Judge Paul A. Englemayer of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York denied a motion to certify a proposed class of direct purchasers of aluminum in a decision that may signal a trend...more
On March 13, 2020, Judge Philip S. Gutierrez of the United States District Court for the Central District of California denied class certification in an action against a restaurant franchising company and certain of its...more
On November 15, 2019, the Eleventh Circuit decertified a Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) class in Cordoba v. DIRECTV, LLC (No. 18-12077, 2019 WL 6044305), finding that the plaintiff could not adequately identify...more
The Eleventh Circuit last week issued a common-sense ruling vacating class certification in a TCPA case—an area of the law where common sense does not always prevail. In Cordoba v. DIRECTV, LLC, No. 19-12077 (11th Cir. Nov....more
On September 12, the Eleventh Circuit decertified an injunction class defined by the past denial of insurance benefits—a decision that may help thwart future efforts from plaintiffs to certify Rule 23(b)(2) classes, rather...more
On June 14, 2019, the Southern District of New York declined to certify a consumer fraud class action arising from alleged brake defects, holding that an abundance of individualized issues defeated predominance....more
The Northern District of Illinois recently clarified that a “revocation class” that defines a putative class as those having made “a request to stop calling [their] number” does not satisfy Rule 23(b)(3)’s predominance...more
A California federal court judge refused to certify a class of plaintiffs in a Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) lawsuit against Citibank, determining that individualized issues of consent would predominate in a case...more
• En banc 9th Circuit affirmed a $210 million settlement in multidistrict litigation against Hyundai and Kia relating to their alleged misrepresentations about the fuel efficiency of their vehicles, reversing the decision of...more
A recent decision by a Connecticut district court reiterates that the issue of consent may foreclose class certification in Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) junk fax cases....more
Certification in a TCPA class action almost always turns on whether the issue of consent can be determined by common proof. But every once in a while, a class representative is found to be inadequate based on their close ties...more
Spotlight on Consent: Individualized Questions of Consent Preclude Class Certification - Despite the overwhelming focus this year on the issue of what constitutes an automatic telephone dialing system, defendants should...more
The Southern District of New York recently declined to certify a class in a suit relating to investments in certain closed-end mutual funds, holding that individual questions overwhelmed the class-wide questions in...more
This edition focuses on rulings issued between February 16, 2018, and June 15, 2018. In this issue, we cover three decisions granting motions to strike/dismiss class claims, five decisions denying such motions, 27 decisions...more
CitiGroup, Inc. (“Citi”) just defeated certification in a massive class action in the consumer-friendly Northern District of Illinois in the case of Tomeo v. CitiGroup, Inc., No. 13-C-4046, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 166117 (N.D....more