Class Actions Brief Blog

Not every class action court filing in North and South Carolina becomes a full-length post on our blog. Here is a recap of April's filings:

Sanda, et al. v. Samsung Electronics America, Inc., et al., No. 6:17-cv-00988 (D.S.C. April 17, 2017) (putative class action brought under federal and various state consumer protection laws alleging defendants manufactured defective home washing machines that caused damage during normal usage and additionally had a flawed recall of this product.)

Krebs, et al. v. Charlotte School of Law, LLC, et al., (originally filed in M.D.N.C. on December ...

House Bill 239, which reduces the number of judges on the North Carolina Court of Appeals and provides for direct appeals of decisions regarding class action certification to the North Carolina Supreme Court, is now law. On April 26, the General Assembly voted to override Governor Cooper’s veto, and the bill has been enacted as Session Law 2017-7.

Our earlier analysis of the law did not address when the provision regarding appeals of class certification decisions would become effective. Similar legislative changes have generally informed practitioners and courts that they ...

Governor Cooper vetoed House Bill 239 on April 21, rejecting the General Assembly’s effort to reduce the number of judges on the North Carolina Court of Appeals from 15 to 12. The bill has been quite controversial, and four former North Carolina Supreme Court justices have said it would “seriously harm our judicial system.”  Although the bill does not speak in partisan terms, its practical effect would be to prevent Governor Cooper from appointing three (or perhaps two) new judges to the Court of Appeals to replace Republican judges who will reach the mandatory retirement age ...

In this post we talk about two of our favorite things (relatively speaking): class actions and mootness.  We last looked at these issues when covering the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Campbell-Ewald Company v. Gomez, 136 S. Ct. 663 (2016).  There, the Court rejected the defendant’s attempt to “pick off” the named plaintiff in a class action case.  The defendant had made a Rule 68 offer to settle the case for the full value of the plaintiff’s claim.  The plaintiff declined, but the defendant argued that its offer nonetheless mooted the claim.  The Supreme Court rejected that ...

Not every class action court filing in North and South Carolina becomes a full-length post on our blog. Here is a recap of March's filings:

Angeles-Gomez, et al. v. Rick Wolf Landscape, LLC, et al., No. 2:17-cv-00009 (E.D.N.C. March 31, 2017) (putative collective and class action brought under FLSA and state wage and hour laws by current and/or former employees of the defendant landscaping and lawn care business and its managing members for alleged unpaid overtime compensation).

Isaman, et al. v. Housekeeping Services of Hilton Head, LLC, et al., No. 9:17-cv-00800 (D.S.C. March 26 ...

Occasionally, we see something outside of the Carolinas that is quirky enough to merit a mention in this space.  Such is the Seventh Circuit’s recent decision in Mulvania v. Sheriff of Rock Island County, No. 16-1711 (7^th Cir. Mar. 9, 2017).  According to Wikipedia, “In 2015 Rock Island (Illinois) was ranked the 32nd ‘Best Small City’ in the country.”  Not influencing those rankings, apparently, was the policy of the Rock Island County Jail, which “requires female detainees to wear either white underwear or no underwear at all.”  What, you ask, might be the “compelling ...

Dish Network has asked the Middle District of North Carolina for a new trial in its telemarketing class action lawsuit after a jury found Dish liable for violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. After a five-day trial ending on January 19th, a jury awarded damages to the class of $20.5 million.

The lawsuit was filed in 2014 by lead plaintiff Thomas Krakauer alleging Satellite Systems Network, an authorized Dish dealer, called him multiple times between 2009 and 2011 despite being listed on the Do Not Call registry. In September 2015, Judge Catherine Eagles certified two ...

Largely following party lines, the House of Representatives on March 9, 2017, passed H.R. 985: Fairness in Class Action Act of 2017, which we highlighted in this space. One central feature of this bill, which we noted, is an appeal as of right of class certification decisions. This provision represents a radical departure from current practice, in which discretionary appeals are infrequently granted to the U.S. Courts of Appeal. A study done several years ago, which looked at seven years of filings, concluded that less than one quarter of such appeals are granted.

As we have ...

Today we continue our analysis of Judge Gorsuch’s class action opinions from the Tenth Circuit in an effort to better understand how he may rule if confirmed for the Supreme Court. Last week, we examined Judge Gorsuch’s decision in Shook v. Board of County Commissioners, and we will take up his remaining class action opinions below.

McClendon v. City of Albuquerque, 630 F.3d 1288 (10th Cir. 2011)

In McClendon v. City of Albuquerque, decided three years after Shook, Judge Gorsuch again demonstrates judicial restraint. In McClendon, prisoners brought a class action against the ...

Not every class action court filing in North and South Carolina becomes a full-length post on our blog. Here is a recap of February's filings:

Bradley, et al. v. Samsung Electronics, et al., No. 1:17-cv-00171 (M.D.N.C. February 28, 2017) (purported class action brought under various state consumer protection and trade practice laws alleging defendants manufactured home washing machines with a defect that caused explosion during normal use.)

Matthews, et al. v. TCL Communication Inc.,  No. 3:17-cv-00095 (W.D.N.C. February 27, 2017) (putative class action removed from ...