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…
Alleged Economic Loss from Purchasing Illegal Dietary Supplements Is Sufficient to Establish Standing
Allegations that plaintiffs suffered an economic loss when they bought dietary supplements prohibited by a federal statute are sufficient to establish standing to bring a class action against the supplement manufacturer and distributor, according to the Eleventh Circuit. In Debernardis v. IQ Formulations, LLC, 2019 WL 5996589 (11th Cir. Nov. 14, 2019), two individual plaintiffs…
Bankruptcy Preemption/Preclusion Defense Does Not Preclude Class Certification in FDCPA/FCCPA Case
In an opinion vacating a district court order denying class certification, the Eleventh Circuit held that whether the Bankruptcy Code precludes and/or preempts the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”), 15 U.S.C. § 1962 et seq., and the Florida Consumer Collection Practices Act (“FCCPA”), Fla. Stat. § 559.55 et seq., raised issues common to all…
Legal Challenge by Frustrated Supporters of 2016 Bernie Sanders Campaign Rejected
As the country approaches the next presidential election in 2020, the Eleventh Circuit closed the book on a putative class action filed by supporters of Bernie Sanders during his last bid for the Democratic Party’s nomination in 2016. Wilding v. DNC Services Corp., 2019 WL 5539021 (11th Cir. Oct. 28, 2019), “pit[ted] a political party…
Public Policy Defense to Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Award Requires Showing That Award Violates the United States’ “Most Basic Notions of Morality and Justice”
The United States has acceded to The New York Convention (the “Convention”), which requires participating nations to enforce arbitration agreements and foreign arbitral awards. Federal district courts generally enforce foreign arbitral awards unless a party establishes one of seven defenses enumerated in Article V of the Convention. One such defense is that an award is…
FACTA Injury/Standing Case to Be Reheard En Banc
The Eleventh Circuit has vacated the panel opinion in Muransky v. Godiva Chocolatier, Inc., 2018 WL 4762434 (11th Cir. Oct. 3, 2018), which held that a merchant’s disclosure of too many digits of a credit card number was sufficient to confer Article III standing even without subsequent misuse of the credit card, and has ordered…
Eleventh Circuit Joins Majority of Circuits in Holding That FAA Prohibits Pre-Hearing Discovery From Non-Parties
After twenty years of litigation in Managed Care Advisory Group, LLC v. Cigna Healthcare, Inc., 2019 WL 4464301 (Sept. 18, 2019), the Eleventh Circuit issued a per curiam opinion reversing the enforcement of arbitral summonses and holding that the FAA implicitly withholds the power to compel documents from non-parties without summoning them to testify. Beginning…
Lending Agreements’ Out-of-State Forum Selection Clauses and Class Action Waivers Violate Georgia Public Policy
Lenders were barred from enforcing out-of-state forum selection clauses and class action waivers in loan agreements because such provisions violate Georgia’s public policy, the Eleventh Circuit held in Davis v. Oasis Legal Finance Operating Co., 2019 WL 4051592 (11th Cir. Aug. 28, 2019). A class of borrowers who entered into identical loan agreements sued their…
Judge Stanley Marcus to Take Senior Status
After more than 20 years serving on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, Judge Stanley Marcus has announced his intention to retire in senior status. Judge Marcus is currently among the most senior active judges on the court, second only to Judge Gerald Tjoflat, who recently announced his own intention to take…