 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Philip Morris Inc. v. Angeletti5/16/2000
at 1-85. See also, e.g., Insolia, 186 F.R.D. at 539- 541 (relating the wealth of evidence against tobacco manufacturers and industry trade groups with respect to the potential harmful effects of tobacco usage and the addictive qualities of nicotine).
Yet, despite the Circuit Court's confidence that such allegations suffice for purposes of the class action commonality requirement, and despite Respondents' conclusory argument before this Court (simply reciting the Circuit Court's listing of common issues, as outlined above in the first paragraph of this section), we agree with Petitioners, and the Insolia court, that an issue of law or fact should be deemed "common" only to the extent its resolution will advance the litigation of the entire case. See id. at 542. Putting aside any skepticism that resolution of the allegedly common issues would advance the litigation of the case at hand, see Smith v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co., 174 F.R.D. 90, 96 (W.D. Mo. 1997) (explaining that individual issues in tobacco litigation are so inextricably entwined with purportedly common issues that "certifying a class in order to obtain a global resolution of these [common] issues will not advance the resolution of this case"), we shall not on this basis reverse the Circuit Court's judgment that a common nucleus of operative facts exists and that the commonality requirement has been satisfied. Underlying our rationale for this restraint is our mindfulness that the less demanding prerequisite of commonality in Rule 2-231(a) is necessarily subsumed in the more exacting requirement of predominance of common issues over individual questions, found in Rule 2-231(b)(3). See Amchem Products, Inc. v. Windsor, 521 U.S. 591, 609, 117 S. Ct. 2231, 2243, 138 L. Ed. 2d 689 (1997), (stating that Federal "Rule 23(a)(2)'s `commonality' requirement is subsumed under, or superseded by, the more stringent Rule 23(b)(3) requirement that questions common to the class `predominate over' other questions").
D. Typicality
The typicality requirement seeks to make certain that "the representative part . . . be `squarely aligned in interest' with the class members." 1 Newberg, supra, § 3.01, at 3-4 to 3-5 (quoting Benjamin Kaplan, Continuing Work of the Civil Committee: 1966 Amendments of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (I), 81 Harv. L. Rev. 356, 387 n. 120 (1967)). It is also "intended to ensure that class representatives will represent the best interests of class members who take a less active part in managing the litigation." S. Baicker-McKee, W. Janssen, & J. Corr, Federal Civil Rules Handbook at 402 (Millennium edition 2000). Professor Newberg characterizes the typicality requirement as follows:
plaintiff's claim is typical if it arises from the same event or practice or course of conduct that gives rise to the claims of other class members, and if his or her claims are based on the same legal theory. When it is alleged that the same unlawful conduct was directed at or affected both the named plaintiff and the class sought to be represented, the typicality requirement is usually met irrespective of varying fact patterns which underlie individual claims. 1 Newberg, supra, § 3.13, at 3-76 to 3-77 (citations omitted).
This requirement demands a common-sense inquiry into whether the incentives of the plaintiffs are aligned with those of the class, and is meant to ensure that representative parties will adequately represent the class. See Baby Neal v. Casey, 43 F.3d 48, 55 (3rd Cir. 1994); 7A Wright, Miller, & Kane, supra, § 1764, at 232-233. Representative claims need not be identical to those of the rest of the class; instead, there must be similar legal and remedial theories und
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 Maryland Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|