Case Name: Faith BROOKS, et al. v. UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD COMPANY, et al.
Court: Louisiana Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Louisiana
Decision Date: 2008-06-04
Citations: 985 So. 2d 864
Docket Number: No. 2007-1427
Parties: Faith BROOKS, et al. v. UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD COMPANY, et al.
Judges: Court composed of SYLVIA R. COOKS, JOHN D. SAUNDERS, OSWALD A. DECUIR, MARC T. AMY, and MICHAEL G. SULLIVAN, Judges.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 985
Pages: 864–870

Head Matter:
Faith BROOKS, et al. v. UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD COMPANY, et al.
No. 2007-1427.
Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit.
June 4, 2008.
Rehearing Denied July 16, 2008.
Kenneth Alan Goodwin, Attorney at Law, New Orleans, LA, L.J. Hymel, Michael Reese Davis, Tim P. Hartdegen, Hy-mel Davis & Petersen, L.L.C., Baton Rouge, LA, for Plaintiffs/Appellees, Mary Gordon, Faith Brooks and Paula Karam.
David A. Fraser, Fraser, Morris & Wheeler, L.L.P., Lake Charles, LA, for Secondary Defendant/Appellant, Union Pacific Railroad Company.
James L. Pate, Ben Mayeaux, Laborde & Neuner, Lafayette, LA, for Secondary Defendants/Appellants, Allen Parish Police Jury and Titan Indemnity Company.
Randall B. Keiser, Keiser Law Firm, P.L.C., Alexandria, LA, for Defendant/Appellant, City of Oakdale.
Court composed of SYLVIA R. COOKS, JOHN D. SAUNDERS, OSWALD A. DECUIR, MARC T. AMY, and MICHAEL G. SULLIVAN, Judges.

Opinion:
DECUIR, Judge.
hln April 1995, a terrible rainstorm came upon the City of Oakdale and the outlying areas. Reports were that anywhere from ten to seventeen inches of rain fell in a twenty-four hour period. As a result, the area experienced massive flooding.
In April 1996, three purported class representatives filed a "Class Action Petition for Damages" against Union Pacific Railroad Company, Missouri Pacific Railroad Company, the State of Louisiana, the City of Oakdale, and Allen Parish. The State was subsequently dropped as a defendant.
The plaintiffs allege in the broadest sense that inadequate box culverts installed and maintained by the railroads, combined with inadequate drainage facilities designed and maintained by the City and Parish, caused the plaintiffs' property to flood. The plaintiffs' experts have opined that the actions of the defendants combined to cause varying levels of flooding in three affected drainage basins in the area.
A hearing was held on the class certification, and the trial court certified the class. The defendants, Union Pacific, the City of Oakdale, and Allen Parish, filed this suspensive appeal.
ASSIGNMENTS OF ERROR
The defendants assign the following errors by the trial court in certifying this lawsuit as a class action:
1) The trial court erred in finding that the commonality requirement has been satisfied.
2) The trial court erred in finding that the typicality requirement has been satisfied.
3) The trial court erred in finding that the representative parties will fairly and adequately protect the interests of the class.
4) The trial court erred in finding that the class can be objectively defined.
|25) The trial court erred in finding that common questions of law and fact predominate.
6) The trial court erred in allowing evidence outside the scope of the pleadings despite timely objection; and
7) The trial court erred in its choice of statutory law to be applied to the railroad.
STANDARD OF REVIEW
Our brethren on the fifth circuit succinctly stated the standard of review for class action certifications as follows:
The standard of review for class action certifications is bifurcated. The factual findings are reviewed under the manifest error/clearly wrong standard, but the trial court's judgment on whether or not to certify the class is reviewed by the abuse of discretion standard. Etter v. Hibernia Corporation, 06-646 (La.App. 4 Cir. 2/14/07), 952 So.2d 782; Boudreaux v. State, Dep't of Transp. and Dev., 96-0137 (La.App. 1 Cir. 2/14/97), 690 So.2d 114, 119. A trial court has wide discretion in deciding whether or not to certify a class. Daniels v. Witco Corp., [03-1478 (La.App. 5 Cir. 6/1/04), 877 So.2d 1011, 1014, writs denied, 04-2283, 04-2287 (La.11/19/04), 888 So.2d 204, 205]; Eastin v. Entergy, 97-1094 (La.App. 5 Cir. 4/15/98), 710 So.2d 835, 838. Any errors to be made in deciding class action issues should be in favor of and not against maintenance of the class action, because a class certification order is subject to modification if later developments during the course of the trial so require. Johnson v. E.I. Dupont deNemours and Co., Inc., 98-229 (La.App. 5 Cir. 10/14/98), 721 So.2d 41; McCastle v. Rollins Environmental Services of Louisiana, Inc., 456 So.2d 612, 620 (La.1984).
When reviewing the trial court's ruling regarding class certification, we do not consider whether plaintiffs' claims state a cause of action or have substantive merit, or whether plaintiffs will ultimately prevail on the merits. Schexnayder v. Entergy Louisiana, Inc., 04-636 (La.App. 5 Cir. 3/29/05), 899 So.2d 107, 113, writ denied, 05-1255 (La.12/9/05), 916 So.2d 1058. Rather, our task is to examine plaintiffs' legal claims and to determine only whether a class action is the appropriate procedural device in light of established Louisiana criteria. Id.
Oubre v. La. Citizens Fair Plan, 07-66, pp. 6-7 (La.App. 5 Cir. 5/29/07), 961 So.2d 504, 508-09, writ denied, 07-1329 (La.9/28/07), 964 So.2d 363.
COMMONALITY
The commonality requirement in La. Code Civ.P. art. 591(A) and the requirements of La.Code Civ.P. art. 591(B)(3) that common questions of law or fact predominate are closely related. Accordingly, we will address them together. Defendants contend that the trial court erred in finding that there are questions of law or fact common to the class and that, if common questions are found, they do not predominate over questions affecting individual members. Defendants argue that Ford v. Murphy Oil U.S.A., Inc., 96-2913 (La.9/9/97), 703 So.2d 542, is the controlling jurisprudence with regard to certification of mass tort actions in Louisiana. In Ford, plaintiffs brought suit against four petrochemical plants claiming physical and property damage as a result of the emissions from the four petrochemical facilities. The court found that because there were four different defendants, each class member would have to offer different facts to establish that certain defendants' actions, either individually or in combination, caused them specific damages.
The court concluded that only mass torts "arising from a common cause or disaster" are appropriate for class certification. Id. at 550. The court reasoned that in situations involving multiple defendants and multiple causes of injury, the individualized issues of causation and damages overwhelm any common issues, thus failing the predominance requirement. Id. at 549-50.
In this case, just as in Ford, multiple defendants are alleged to have contributed, individually or in combination, to the flooding of the City of Oakdale. Despite plaintiffs' arguments to the contrary, the causes of the claimed injuries to person or property vary from class member to class member. The plaintiffs allege that the railroads installed inadequate box culverts and that they failed to maintain them appropriately thereby causing the plaintiffs to sustain damage when their homes | .flooded. On the other hand, the plaintiffs contend that the City and Parish designed and maintained an inadequate overall drainage system that caused the plaintiffs' damages. Moreover, the plaintiffs' homes are located in three distinct drainage basins and received varying degrees of damage depending on their individual elevations and surrounding circumstances. Plaintiffs argue that because the actions of all of the defendants caused elevated water levels in all of the drainage basins, it is just a matter of how many inches of water to attribute to each defendant in each area.
We are unconvinced by this argument. Each plaintiff would still need to establish not only that defendant X contributed a certain amount of water to the area but also that defendant X's contribution would have resulted in the alleged damage even if defendant Y had not been negligent. The answers to these questions could vary widely depending on the drainage basin, the elevation of the home, and other individual factors related to each property. Furthermore, despite the fact that the allegations of negligence on the part of the defendants are in the same class of actions, the plaintiffs actually allege specific and different acts of negligence on the part of each defendant. The only common event is the massive rainfall which is not attributable to the defendants.
To summarize, absent a common cause, it will be necessary for each class member to provide individualized proof of causation as well as damages. In addition, the plaintiffs' theory that the combined effect of all the defendants' negligent acts can fulfill the common cause requirement was specifically addressed in Ford. The court concluded that such theories were inappropriate for class actions. Id. Accordingly, we find that the plaintiffs failed to establish that common issues predominate, and therefore, the trial court abused its discretion in granting class certification. We | ¡^pretermit discussion of the remaining assignments of error as our resolution of the above issue is dispositive.
DECREE
For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the trial court is reversed, and the case remanded for further proceedings. All costs of these proceedings are taxed to the plaintiffs-appellees.
REVERSED AND REMANDED.
COOKS, J., dissents for the reasons assigned by Judge SAUNDERS.
SAUNDERS, J., dissents and assigns written reasons.