LegiStorm

Summary:

The class action suit is a procedural device for joining numerous parties in a civil lawsuit when the issues involved are common to the class as a whole and when the issues turn on questions of law applicable in the same manner to each member of the class. Class actions are intended to save the resources of both the courts and the parties by permitting an issue potentially affecting every class member to be litigated together in an economical fashion. The class action is also intended to allow parties to pursue a legal remedy when it is not economically feasible to obtain relief, such as where each claim involves only a small dollar amount. The modern class action appears to be derived from the Bill of Peace, an equitable proceeding developed by the English Court of Chancery, which enabled an equity court to hear an action by or against representatives of a group, if the plaintiff could establish that the number of people involved was so large as to make joinder impossible or impracticable. Class suits have long been a part of American jurisprudence, starting with their authorization by federal courts under equity rules. These rules gradually became codified at the state and federal level, but were generally restricted to cases where the class shared a common or general interest and where the parties were too numerous for the cases to be combined under traditional rules of joinder. With the increasing complexity and interconnectedness of modern society, the class action has taken on a more prominent role. Over the last several years, both the Supreme Court and Congress have actively considered the scope of class action lawsuits. In Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes, decided in 2011, the Court has limited the ability of plaintiffs who are not similarly situated from bringing class action suits, which may result in smaller class sizes. During the 2015 term, the Court in Campbell-Ewald Co. v. Gomez declined to find that a defendant’s offer to provide complete relief to settle a plaintiff’s individual claims would moot a class action lawsuit before certification, which might have made it more difficult for a particular individual to bring a class action. The Court, however, left open the possibility that such an action might be rendered moot by the defendant putting funds in an account payable to the plaintiff. In Tyson Foods, Inc. v. Bouaphakeo, also decided during the 2015 term, the Court held that each person joined in a class action suit need not prove, individually, that she was harmed by the claimed misconduct, if statistical models can show such harm. Although the Court declined to articulate all the situations in which statistical evidence could be introduced, it left open the possibility that such evidence could be used in a number of future class action cases. In Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins, the Court has been asked to consider whether a class action meets the standing requirements of Article III if the plaintiff suffered a statutory injury but no actual damages. If the Court finds that a statutory injury is sufficient to satisfy Article III, class actions brought under those claims might be more easily certified than class actions where proof of injury may vary from plaintiff to plaintiff. In January 2016, the House passed H.R. 1927, the Fairness in Class Action Litigation and Furthering Asbestos Claim Transparency Act of 2016. This legislation, if enacted into law, would arguably limit the size of some class action suits by limiting class action suits to class members who have suffered injuries of the same type and scope.