In Attias v. CareFirst, Inc., 15-cv-00882-CRC (D.D.C. Mar. 28, 2023), the court’s application of TransUnion v. Ramirez, 141 S. Ct. 2190 (2021), reinforced that inclusion of uninjured class members in the class definition can defeat certification. In CareFirst, Plaintiffs alleged that the data breach that CareFirst, Inc. (“CareFirst”), a health insurance company, suffered in 2014 exposed the plaintiffs to increased risk of fraud and identity theft. Plaintiffs claimed they had to spend time and money on services such as credit and identity theft monitoring programs. They sought to represent classes that included all CareFirst customers in certain states whose personal information was impacted by the breach, regardless of whether those customers incurred additional expenses as a result of the breach.
Ninth Circuit Sharpens Predominance Requirement: Looking Behind Plaintiffs’ Fiction in Dismantling Class Certification
The Ninth Circuit continues its efforts to give teeth to the predominance requirement of Rule 23 as a potent tool for defendants to defeat class certification.
Earlier this year, in Bowerman v. Field Asset Services, Inc., 39 F.4th 652 (9th Cir. 2022), amended, — F.4th —-, 2023 WL 2001967 (9th Cir. Feb. 14, 2023), the Ninth Circuit determined that where individualized inquiries were necessary to determine the existence of damages—as opposed to the question of calculating damages—class certification was inappropriate because the class would fail to meet the predominance requirement of Rule 23.
Ninth Circuit Gives Teeth To Predominance in Voiding a Misclassification Suit Win
A recent Ninth Circuit decision continues to emphasize how, post-Comcast, defendants should look for ways to characterize individualized issues as questions of liability, not questions of damages.
Continue Reading Ninth Circuit Gives Teeth To Predominance in Voiding a Misclassification Suit Win