Class Actions Brief Blog

Earlier this year, we hazarded a guess that the Supreme Court was split 4-4 regarding a Ninth Circuit decision holding that a named plaintiff could achieve appellate review of a decision denying class certification by voluntarily dismissing his individual claims. It turns out, based upon the Supreme Court’s decision in Microsoft Corp. v. Baker [], that the internal debate was not so much over whether the Ninth Circuit erred in allowing the appeal, but whether that error had both statutory and constitutional implications. The Supreme Court had accepted certiorari to review “[w]hether a federal court of appeals has jurisdiction under both Article III and 28 U.S.C. Section 1291 to review an order denying class certification after the named plaintiffs voluntarily dismiss their individual claims with prejudice.” With Justice Gorsuch on the sidelines, the Court unanimously held that the named plaintiffs’ gamesmanship did not allow appellate review, but the justices differed in their reasons for that outcome.

Five members of the Court, led by Justice Ginsburg, concluded that such an appeal was inconsistent with F.R. App. P. 23(f). The majority reasoned that “[r]espondents’ voluntary-dismissal tactic . . . invites protracted litigation and piecemeal appeals,” and would – essentially – turn Rule 23(f)’s “discretionary regime” into a license for plaintiffs to force an interlocutory appeal of a ruling denying class certification. This, the Court noted, would upset “Rule 23(f)’s careful calibration” and “Congress[’] final decision rule would end up a pretty puny one.”

In our previous post, we sounded an alarm about the “one way street” that was a feature of the Ninth Circuit’s decision, noting that “This option—if allowed by the Supreme Court—works only for plaintiffs in class action cases, not defendants. If defendants suffer an adverse class certification ruling, and the appellate court does not exercise its discretion to accept the interlocutory appeal, defendants must litigate the case to judgment before obtaining review of the class determination.” Justice Ginsburg agreed with us on this point, observing in her opinion for the majority that “[t]he one-sidedness of respondents’ voluntary-dismissal device ‘reinforce[s] our conclusion [of no jurisdiction],” and that “the ‘class issue’ may be just as important to defendants.”

Although the majority founded its decision on 28 U.S.C. Section 1291, thereby avoiding the Article III issue, Justice Thomas, joined by Justice Alito and the Chief Justice, wrote a concurring opinion that took the constitutional issue head on. The concurrence argued that there was no Article III “case or controversy” following the named plaintiffs’ dismissal of their claims. Justice Thomas noted that “it has long been the rule that a party may not appeal from the voluntary dismissal of a claim,” and that the parties were “no longer adverse to each other on any claims” after that dismissal. A favorable ruling on class certification could not, the concurring opinion explained, “revive [the named plaintiffs’] individual claims.”

With deference to the Ninth Circuit jurists who proceeded to adjudicate the appeal in Baker, this was not a particularly hard case. In Coopers & Lybrand v. Livesay, 437 U.S. 463 (1978), the Supreme Court unanimously rejected the so-called “death-knell” doctrine, which had permitted plaintiffs to appeal as of right a district court order denying a motion for class certification. Given that decision, and the fact that Rule 23(f) appellate jurisdiction is discretionary, not mandatory, it is difficult to see how a voluntary dismissal gambit could ultimately succeed. Unfortunately now for Xbox gamers, they will have to litigate their ‘disc gouging’ claims one by one . . . .