Judge Kevin Newsom begins his opinion for the court in Harris v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., 2020 WL 6816965 (11th Cir. Nov. 20, 2020), with the auspicious observation that this Engle case is “one of the last that we’re likely to see.” Correct or not, the comment evokes the long history in the Eleventh Circuit…
Category: Class Actions
Eleventh Circuit Bans Incentive Payments to Lead Plaintiffs in Class Actions
In what appears to be a first, the Eleventh Circuit recently held that federal law prohibits so-called “incentive payments” to class representatives, even as part of an agreed settlement. The court acknowledged that it was forging a new path in Johnson v. NPAS Solutions, LLC, 975 F.3d 1244, 1248–49 (11th Cir. 2020)—identifying errors that it…
Foundry Employees’ Action is a “Mass Action” Subject to Removal Under the Class Action Fairness Act
The Eleventh Circuit has clarified the scope of the “local event exception” to the federal-court jurisdiction over “mass actions” conferred by the Class Action Fairness Act (“CAFA”), holding that claims by former foundry employees against manufacturers and distributors of products used at the foundry are not within the exception. Spencer v. Specialty Foundry Prods. Inc.,…
Eleventh Circuit Affirms Dismissal With Prejudice of Auto Shops’ RICO Complaint Against Insurers
The Eleventh Circuit has affirmed the dismissal with prejudice of a putative class action brought by auto body collision repair shops against dozens of insurers and alleging RICO violations, fraud, and unjust enrichment. Crawford’s Auto Center, Inc. v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., 2019 WL 6974428 (Dec. 20, 2019). The plaintiffs alleged that the…
Class Action Seeking Reinstatement of Life Insurance Policies Was Properly Removed to Federal Court
In Anderson v. Wilco Life Ins. Co., 2019 WL 6242199 (11th Cir. Nov. 22, 2019), the Eleventh Circuit reversed the district court’s order remanding to state court a putative class action against a life insurance company. The case had been properly removed under the Class Action Fairness Act (“CAFA”), the appeals court held, because the…
Courts Must Evaluate Unnamed Class Members‘ Standing before Class Certification
Courts coping with overbroad class definitions that include uninjured class members have produced a cacophony of opinions. A first question often addressed in these opinions is whether the problem is one of Article III standing or of meeting Rule 23’s class certification requirements, or both. Senior Judge Stanley Marcus’ opinion for the Eleventh Circuit in…
No Multiplier for Home Depot Class Action Lodestar Fee Award
In a class action settlement, one of the most difficult issues for negotiation is often how—and how much—class counsel will be paid. In many cases, a cap on the fee is negotiated: the defendant agrees not to object to a fee application within the cap, which can be a percentage of the so-called “common fund”…
Class-Action Plaintiff Lacks Standing to Challenge Policy Interpretation After Exhaustion of Personal Insurance Benefits
Citing a lack of standing, the Eleventh Circuit threw out an insurance class action that had been pending for several years in A&M Gerber Chiropractic LLC v. GEICO General Insurance Co., 2019 WL 1746869 (11th Cir. Apr. 19, 2019), leaving unsettled an “important issue” related to personal-injury-protection (PIP) benefits under Florida’s Motor Vehicle No-Fault Law….
Rule 23(f) Petitions to Eleventh Circuit
One question that Eleventh Circuit litigants often ask is how likely the court is to grant a Rule 23(f) petition for interlocutory review of a class certification decision. Litigants who have been on the wrong end of a class certification decision ask this question with particular urgency because an interlocutory appeal—before the trial on the…
Supreme Court Clarifies Law on Late-Filed Rule 23(f) Petitions
This week, the Supreme Court ruled that the 14-day deadline to file an interlocutory appeal of a district court’s class certification decision is not subject to equitable tolling. Nutraceutical Corp. v. Lambert, No. 17-1094, 2019 WL 920828 (U.S. Feb. 26, 2019). In Nutraceutical, after the district court issued a decision decertifying the class, the plaintiff…