Case Name: Samuel W. PARRY, M.D., et al. v. The ADMINISTRATORS OF the TULANE EDUCATIONAL FUND, d/b/a Tulane Medical School
Court: Louisiana Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Louisiana
Decision Date: 1999-06-30
Citations: 740 So. 2d 210
Docket Number: No. 98-CA-2125
Parties: Samuel W. PARRY, M.D., et al. v. The ADMINISTRATORS OF the TULANE EDUCATIONAL FUND, d/b/a Tulane Medical School.
Judges: Court composed of Judge MOON LANDRIEU, Judge PATRICIA RIVET MURRAY, Judge ROBERT A. KATZ.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 740
Pages: 210–216

Head Matter:
Samuel W. PARRY, M.D., et al. v. The ADMINISTRATORS OF the TULANE EDUCATIONAL FUND, d/b/a Tulane Medical School.
No. 98-CA-2125.
Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fourth Circuit.
June 30, 1999.
R. Ray Orrill, Jr., Orrill, Shearman & Cordell, LLC, New Orleans, Louisiana, and Peter J. Butler, Peter J. Butler, Jr., Richard G. Passler, W. Christopher Beary, Breazeale, Sachse & Wilson, LLP, New Orleans, Louisiana, Counsel for Plaintiffs/Appellees Samuel W. Parry, M.D. and the Class.
Harry S. Hardin, III, Edward H. Ber-gin, Edward D. Wegmann, Joseph J. Low-enthal, Jr., Jones, Walker, Waechter, Poi-tevent, Carrere & Denegre, LLP, New Orleans, Louisiana, Counsel for Defendant/Appellant.
Court composed of Judge MOON LANDRIEU, Judge PATRICIA RIVET MURRAY, Judge ROBERT A. KATZ.

Opinion:
| j KATZ, Judge.
This is an appeal from a trial court judgement granting a request for class certification. Appellant, The Administrators of the Tulane Educational Fund, D/B/A Tulane Medical School, argues that the plaintiff, Samuel W. Parry, M.D. failed to prove that his claim for class certification met the statutory requirements in CCP Article 591(A).
Tulane Medical School consists of 14 academic departments, each of which is contractually obligated to pay the salaries of its respective full-time faculty physicians. The departments receive their funding from several sources, including grants, contractual arrangements with hospitals, and revenue collected by Affiliated Services Billing (ASB), a division of Tulane Medical Center.
Tulane's full-time physicians participate in the Tulane University Medical Group Faculty Practice Plan (FPP), a division of Tulane Medical School that bills, collects and distributes the professional income generated by the private practice of the faculty physicians. Pursuant to the FPP Agreement, the physician is guaranteed a base salary that is paid from "School source" funds and FPP sources. The faculty physician also has the opportunity to earn supplemental income from "FPP sources" through his private practice.
The Medical Center of Louisiana at New Orleans, formerly known as Charity Hospital at New Orleans (Charity) is owned and operated by the State of Louisiana and provides medical services, primarily to indigent patients. Charity also serves as a teaching hospital for both Tulane and Louisiana State University Medical Schools. The Tulane faculty physicians perform several services at Charity: they supervise the medical care rendered by interns and residents; they serve in hospital administrative positions; and they render direct patient care. And ^Affiliated Services Billing (ASB) is the division of Tulane Medical Center which bills and collects for these patient care services rendered at Charity.
Plaintiff, a plastic surgeon and former Tulane faculty member, taught from July 1, 1986 until October 15, 1997. While employed as a full-time faculty physician in the Department of Surgery, he was an FPP participant. Plaintiff filed suit after he discovered that revenues Tulane received for medical services he had performed at Charity had not been included in his group practice compensation-an alleged violation of both his contract and the GFPP.
Plaintiff seeks to certiíy as a class all present and former Tulane faculty physicians who were GFPP participants and had rendered professional services at Charity from July 1,1987 through June 30, 1997. This putative class consists of approximately 470 present and former faculty physicians.
After considering the evidence at the hearing, the trial court identified the predominant issue in this claim to be a determination of whether the GFPP obligated Tulane to include the money it receives for the participants' work at Charity in the GFPP to be ultimately distributed to the participant as additional income.
Accordingly, the trial judge, Honorable Max N. Tobias, Jr., then proceeded to certify the following class:
"All [physician faculty] participants in the Tulane University Medical Group Faculty Practice Plan during the period July 1, 1987 to June 30, 1997 who performed any professional [medical] activities or services at Charity Hospital and Medical Center of Louisiana at New Orleans (SIC) or Charity Hospital of Louisiana at New Orleans."
| /-The trial court judgement further stated:
"Judgement is rendered reserving to the Court the right to vacate class certification should a significant number of class members opt out of the class thereby bring the number of class members below that legally necessary to have a class under Article 591(A) of the Code of Civil Procedure".
This Court in Spitzfaden v. Dow Corning, 619 So.2d 795, 798 (La.App. 4 Cir., 1993), writ denied, 624 So.2d 1236, 1237 (La.1993) held that the burden is on the plaintiffs to establish that the statutory criteria are met.
This Court finds that the trial court amply discussed the various prerequisites for the maintaining of a class action pursuant to CCP Article 591(A), and how each of the criteria has been met in its reasons for judgement.
This Court has also recognized that the trial court is given "wide latitude" in considerations that require an analysis of the facts relative to the prerequisites for class certification in a given case, and its decision on certification must be affirmed unless it is manifestly erroneous. Adams v. CSX Railroads, 92-CA-1077 (4th Cir. 2/26/93), 615 So.2d 476, 481. On the record before it, this Court cannot say that the Trial Court's decision to certify a class action at this time is manifestly erroneous.
For the foregoing reasons, the judgement of the trial court dated March 10, 1998, certifying a class action is affirmed.
AFFIRMED.
LANDRIEU, J., DISSENTS WITH REASONS.
. Tulane contends that the ASB collected funds are independent of the FPP and, after certain deductions, these funds aire distributed to Tulane's academic departments as "School source funds" for use as each department deems appropriate; or, the departments are allowed to use the ASB funds to pay in part the "School source" portion of the faculty physician participants' base salaries; or, the departments may cover deficits where participants have not generated sufficient revenues to satisfy their salaries through private practice; or, a department may choose to distribute the ASB funds to its faculty physician participants in the form of bonuses.
. The dissent argues that the criteria for nu-merosity has not been met. As this Court stated in Williams v. Orleans Parish School Board, 541 So.2d 228 (La.App. 4 Cir.1989), "with regard to numerosity, there is no set number that automatically makes joinder impractical; rather the determination is based on the facts and circumstances of each case."
Accordingly, the trial court obviously concluded that there was sufficient numerosity to certify a class action and the trial court findings should be given due deference.
Even if class certification were to be denied, the joinder articles 641-647 permit the Court or any party to join as a defendant if there is "a substantial risk of incurring multiple or inconsistent obligations." CCP Article 641(2)(b).
Also, see CCP Article 592 D that provides that a class action may be maintained only with respect to "particular issues" if the Court so deems it appropriate.