First Class Defense
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This class action blog explores the decisions of the state and federal courts within the boundaries of the First Circuit. We aim to provide timely information about significant class action developments, strategies, and trends on a national level.
First Class Defense
1M ago
This summer, the First Circuit revived a privacy class action based on debt collection practices. In Nightingale v National Grid USA Service Company, the district court granted summary judgment in favor of the defendants and denied class certification. On appeal, the First Circuit vacated and remanded, focusing its analysis on (1) whether the Plaintiff alleged a cognizable injury and (2) whether the injuries alleged met the predominance requirement to certify the putative class. In both instances, the First Circuit determined that, because the answer was yes, the case should proceed before the ..read more
First Class Defense
3M ago
Three recent Supreme Court Decisions—Coinbase v. Suski, Smith v. Spizzirri, and Bissonnette v. LePage Bakeries—based on consumer and employment disputes have resolved significant circuit splits over arbitration. These cases were all decided by a unanimous Court, with Justices Jackson, Sotomayor, and Roberts authoring the three opinions.
Supreme Court Considers Arbitrability Based on Conflicting Contracts
In Coinbase v. Suski (May 23, 2024), the Supreme Court held that where there is a conflict between one or more contracts between same parties regarding the arbitrability of a dispute, a court ..read more
First Class Defense
3M ago
In 2023, we discussed the uptick in data privacy and cybersecurity class action lawsuits; as expected, this trend has persisted throughout 2024 as plaintiffs continue to test new theories of liability and the boundaries of constitutional standing. In privacy class actions before the federal courts of the First Circuit, plaintiffs have brought state tort and contract law claims, as well as privacy-specific statutes, in their attack on businesses’ electronic data collection practices. These claims can be separated into two distinct categories: the first is based on electronic data breaches, in w ..read more
First Class Defense
6M ago
On April 29, 2024, the Supreme Court issued an Order List indicating that certiorari had been denied in Brinker International, Inc. v. Steinmetz, Docket No. 23-648.
The Eleventh Circuit Brinker Decision
Brinker was a July 2023 Eleventh Circuit decision affirming class certification and holding that class members’ exposure of their payment information to the dark web was sufficient harm to establish standing in a data breach case. The Eleventh Circuit set forth an expansive view of when data breaches can create Article III constitutional standing to support class action certification. The ..read more
First Class Defense
9M ago
We recently highlighted two Boston-based COVID-19 tuition refund class action suits, against Brandeis University and Boston College, and the impact of a provision in the Commonwealth’s Fiscal Year 2024 Budget that grants retroactive immunity from claims arising out of tuition or fees paid for the Spring 2020 term. In both cases, with orders issued just days apart, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts in Boston found that provision, Section 80(b), was reasonable and narrowly tailored and therefore not unconstitutional. In the Brandeis case, the ruling ended the matter entir ..read more
First Class Defense
10M ago
In Part 2 of our series on our Massachusetts and Boston-based COVID-19 tuition refund class action suits, we reviewed the legal backdrop of this wave of class action litigation and explored some common pitfalls in education-based claims, noting that even where cases are able to proceed based on adequate framing of the claims and underlying facts, many lose their steam when a university successfully argues for denial of plaintiffs’ attempts to pursue their cases as class actions. One example of a Boston-area case in which class certification that we discussed was the May 2023 denial in Omori v ..read more
First Class Defense
10M ago
At the close of 2023, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal of petitioner Acheson in Acheson Hotels, LLC v. Laufer as moot and vacated the underlying decision by the First Circuit that Laufer had constitutional standing to bring her ADA claims. The decision came as no surprise following the Justices’ sharp focus on mootness during oral argument in October. Our earlier posts provide coverage of that oral argument and the petition for appeal. At the time of oral argument, it was uncertain whether the Court would rest its decision concerning jurisdiction on mootness or standing. That question ha ..read more
First Class Defense
1y ago
Earlier this month, in Elsie Metcalfe v. Grieco Hyundai, LLC, the Rhode Island Federal District Court invalidated a class action waiver in an agreement without an arbitration clause that was therefore not subject to the Federal Arbitration Act.
In Metcalfe, Plaintiff Elsie Metcalfe leased a car from Defendant Grieco Hyundai, LLC, in May 2019. The lease agreement included an option to purchase the vehicle at a specific price at the end of the lease. When the Defendant raised the price, Ms. Metcalfe brought a class action for breach of contract and violation of the Rhode Island Decep ..read more
First Class Defense
1y ago
Earlier this week, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Acheson Hotels, LLC v. Laufer, a case that we have summarized in prior blog posts. Just months ago, there was doubt whether the Supreme Court would hear the case at all. While the Court granted Acheson Hotels’ petition for a writ of certiorari in March 2023, Laufer urged the Court to dismiss the case for mootness in July 2023 following the voluntary dismissal of her claims. Acheson Hotels opposed dismissal and urged the Court to hear its challenge to Laufer’s constitutional standing. The Supreme Court, in an unsigned, two-senten ..read more
First Class Defense
1y ago
In Clark v. A&L Homecare & Training Ctr., LLC, 68 F.4th 1003 (6th Cir. 2023), the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals recently created a new standard for its district courts to employ when determining whether to authorize notice in Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) cases, or what other Circuits typically refer to as the “conditional certification” phase of a FLSA collective action. In fact, the Sixth Circuit altogether rejects characterization of this notice stage as “certification” of anything, conditional or otherwise, noting that the term is borrowed from Rule 23’s governance of clas ..read more