The U.S. Supreme Court has closed a loophole that class action plaintiffs in the Ninth Circuit had been exploiting to obtain immediate appellate review of a district court’s denial of class certification. The decision – Microsoft Corp. v. Baker, 582 U.S. __ (2017) – will end a practice in the Ninth Circuit that was seen as unfair to defendants, who could not exploit the same loophole to obtain immediate review of a district court’s grant of class certification.
Continue Reading Class Action Plaintiffs In The Ninth Circuit Can No Longer Obtain Immediate Appellate Review Of Orders Denying Class Certification

In Resh v. China Agritech, No. 15-5543, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 9029 (9th Cir. May 24, 2017), a Ninth Circuit panel held that a pending putative class action in which class certification is ultimately denied tolls the statute of limitations as to claims that previously absent class members later seek to assert as class claims. The ruling expands a tolling doctrine the U.S. Supreme Court has so far only applied to absent class members’ individual claims. See American Pipe & Construction Co v. Utah, 414 U.S. 538 (1974). It also clarifies Ninth Circuit precedent, which, to the extent it had previously applied American Pipe tolling to absent class members’ class claims, arguably did so only when the earlier class certification denial rested on the named plaintiff’s inadequacy, not on the invalidity of the alleged class itself. Resh applies American Pipe to class claims without qualification. Hence, it opens the door in the Ninth Circuit to new phenomenon: successive class actions based on the same underlying event.
Continue Reading If At First You Don’t Succeed: The Ninth Circuit Invites Successive Class Actions By Extending American Pipe Tolling To Absent Class Members’ Own Class Claims

In May, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its opinion in Spokeo v. Robins, providing guidance on the “injury-in-fact” aspect of the constitutional standing requirement for putative class action plaintiffs.  136 S. Ct. 1540 (2016), as revised (May 24, 2016).  Spokeo was quickly hailed by both plaintiff- and defense-side lawyers as a major victory, but in truth provided something for everyone.  It requires, for example, that a plaintiff allege “a concrete injury even in the context of a statutory violation . . .” and not merely a “bare procedural violation, divorced from any concrete harm.”  Id. at 1543, 1549.  Further, a “concrete” injury must “actually exist” and be “real, and not abstract.”  Id. at 1548.  On the other hand, a “concrete” injury is not “necessarily synonymous with ‘tangible.’”  Id. at 1549.  Ways to determine whether “intangible” harm qualifies as “concrete” include: (1) evaluating whether the alleged harm “has a close relationship to a harm that has traditionally been regarded as providing a basis for a lawsuit” and (2) looking to the judgment of Congress which “has the power to define injuries and articulate chains of causation that will give rise to a case or controversy where none existed before.”  Id.
Continue Reading Update on Data Breach and Data Privacy Class Actions Post-Spokeo

In Brazil v. Dole, No. 14-17480 (9th Cir. Sept. 30, 2016), the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part three different orders issued by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.  In doing so, the Ninth Circuit (1) confirmed that in order to state a false advertising claim under the unlawful prong of California’s Unfair Competition law, a plaintiff must allege that he relied on the purportedly misleading statements, (2) clarified what types of evidence were sufficient to create an issue of material fact sufficient to defeat summary judgment based on the reasonable consumer standard, and (3) confirmed that, in order to certify a damages class under Rule 23(b)(3), a plaintiff must present a damages model that provides a method of calculating damages using proof common to the class.
Continue Reading Ninth Circuit Confirms Brazil v. Dole Decertification Due to Faulty Damages Model

Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins has been closely watched because of its potential implications for class actions alleging mere “technical violations” of consumer protection statutes.  Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a 6-2 decision confirming that a plaintiff must have suffered a “concrete” injury to have standing under Article III of the U.S. Constitution.  According to the Court, a plaintiff who suffers the injury defined in a consumer protection statute may or may not have suffered an injury sufficiently “concrete” to have standing.  But because the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals had failed to address the concreteness of Plaintiff’s injury as a separate issue, the Supreme Court remanded the case.
Continue Reading U.S. Supreme Court Remands Spokeo; Ninth Circuit Must Consider Whether “Concrete” Injury Occurred

In IBEW Local 98 Pension Fund v. Best Buy Co., Inc., No. 14-3178 (8th Cir. Apr. 12, 2016), the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit held, in a Rule 10b-5 securities fraud action, that the district court incorrectly analyzed the price-impact evidence submitted by defendants to rebut the fraud-on-the-market presumption of reliance that plaintiffs had invoked to satisfy Rule 23(b)(3)’s predominance requirement.  Two years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Haliburton Co. v. Erica P. John Fund, Inc., 134 S.Ct. 2398, 2414-16 (2014) (Halliburton II), recognized a defendant’s right to rebut the presumption using price-impact evidence at the class-certification stage.  Based on Haliburton II, the majority panel determined that defendants had submitted “overwhelming” evidence that the alleged misstatement caused no stock price inflation.  The panel rejected plaintiffs’ theory that the misstatement could nevertheless have “maintained” the stock’s already-inflated price at the allegedly inflated level.  The decision importantly limits the fraud-on-the-market presumption to cases in which the alleged misstatement is the independent cause of new or additional stock price inflation.
Continue Reading Eighth Circuit Reverses District Court for Ignoring Price-Impact Evidence That Rebutted the Fraud-on-the-Market Presumption and Defeated Class Certification

While the U.S. Supreme Court has issued decisions on two of its major class action cases this term, Campbell-Ewald Co. v. Gomez and Tyson Foods v. Bouaphekeo (see January 20, 2016 blog and May 5, 2016 blog), one other previously argued case remains undecided, Spokeo, Inc. v. Robbins.  What will happen with this case given the recent passing of Justice Scalia?   
Continue Reading Reading The Tea Leaves – How Will The U.S. Supreme Court Decide Spokeo?

A U.S. Supreme Court decision expected to potentially change (or at least clarify) the rules on the hot-button issue of statistical modeling in class actions ended up turning much more on case law specific to the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), and on some litigation strategy decisions made at the trial court level.  The Court’s 7-1 decision in Tyson Foods v. Bouaphakeo, thus became much less of a blockbuster than many had expected.  
Continue Reading Statistical Modeling in Class Actions: The U.S. Supreme Court Weighs in, Kind of

On July 20, 2015, the Seventh Circuit issued its opinion in Remijas v. Neiman Marcus Group, 794 F. 3d 688 (7th Circ. 2015), which immediately became the low-water mark for Article III standing in data breach cases.  In short, Remijas became the first Circuit decision to expressly and expansively recognize that risk of future injury and time and money spent protecting against identity theft as a result of a data breach were sufficient to confer Article III standing.
Continue Reading Back at it Again (with the Standing Opinions): Seventh Circuit Reiterates Article III Standing in Data Breach Class Actions

Not all class action allegations are created equal. Certain types of claims are more likely to be amenable to class treatment – generally those involving uniform policies that result in uniform injuries; other claims seem destined for individualized treatment – generally those involving a variety of unpredictable factors that determine liability as to each putative class member.  And some class claims, due to their very nature, are so individualized that the class allegations should be dismissed on the pleadings.  Indeed, the California court of appeal recently reminded us that some class allegations deserve dismissal on demurrer.  The case is Schermer v. Tatum, D067807 (Cal. App. 4th Dis. Mar. 18, 2016).
Continue Reading Attacking Class Action Allegations On The Pleadings Can Be A Successful Strategy