Opinion ID: 2175343
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Does the instant case meet the criteria of sec. 260.12, Stats.?

Text: 1. Numerousness and adequate representation. The latter two criteria pose no difficulties. Five thousand persons is surely an impracticable number to bring before the court, and the named parties in this case are unquestionably litigating zealously. 2. Community of interest requirement. The question of whether the class members have a right or interest in common here presents more of a problem. Commentators have sharply disagreed as to whether this court has interpreted the common interest requirement restrictively [34] or liberally. [35] The old cases discussed above, holding that class members must be necessary parties, were very restrictive. However, in the last fifty years, this court has been much more flexible, finding class actions proper where justified by, in Professor Foster's terms, both necessity and convenience. [36] Flexibility was a hallmark of the old equity practice. [37] As Pomeroy comments, when deciding whether to aggregate actions to prevent a multiplicity of suits, most courts looked beyond traditional notions of privity: . . . the weight of authority is simply overwhelming that the jurisdiction may and should be exercised, either on behalf of a numerous body of separate claimants against a single party, or on behalf of a single party against such a numerous body, although there is no `common title,' nor `community of right' or of `interest in the subject-matter,' among these individuals, but where there is and because there is merely a community of interest among them in the questions of law and fact involved in the general controversy, or in the kind and form of relief demanded and obtained by or against each individual member of the numerous body. In a majority of the decided cases, this community of interest in the questions at issue and in the kind of relief sought has originated from the fact that the separate claims of all the individuals composing the body arose by means of the same unauthorized, unlawful, or illegal act or proceeding. Even this external feature of unity, however, has not always existed, and is not deemed essential. Courts of the highest standing and ability have repeatedly interfered and exercised this jurisdiction, where the individual claims were not only legally separate, but were separate in time, and each arose from an entirely separate and distinct transaction, simply because there was a community of interest among all the claimants in the question at issue and in the remedy. [Footnotes omitted.] [38] Pomeroy's comments have been criticized by some authorities, most notably the Mississippi Supreme Court, as being too liberal. [39] However, writing in 1950, Professor Chafee concluded that Pomeroy's views were supported both by the reported decisions and sound public policy, and he suggested the basic problem boiled down to this: [T]he court must determine whether the advantages of disposing of the entire controversy in one proceeding are outweighed by the difficulties of combining divergent issues and persons. It is a question of the balance of convenience whether the court will settle all the issues in one suit; or will settle only the common question in one suit and then allow the independent questions to proceed in separate equity suits; or not settle the controversy at all in a single suit. [40] We think these principles support the lower court's decision allowing maintenance of the class action here. Although the class members do have distinct causes of action, the common issues far outweigh the separate issues. The complaint alleges that defendant promised each class member free retirement life insurance under the company's single group insurance program. Then defendant changed the program at the same time and in the same way with respect to each class member. Several questions of common or general interest are thus presented: What was defendant's retirement insurance program? Did defendant breach its obligations in unilaterally changing the program? What formula is appropriate to measure the damages suffered, if any, by the class members? Although the question of the amount of damages to which each class member would be entitled would have to be separately determined after the above issues were decided in a common trial, this last question would not seem overly complicated and could undoubtedly be resolved by reference to insurance records in defendant's possession. Defendant protests in its brief that different promises were made to each class member and that therefore no questions of common interest are presented in this case. However, the complaint alleges defendant promised the same free life insurance program to each class member. Since this case is on appeal from an order overruling a demurrer, this allegation must be considered true. If defendant has contrary information showing that, in fact, no common issues are involved in this case, it must be presented in further proceedings in the lower court and not here. The conclusion that a class action would be appropriate here is supported by this court's decision in Peters v. International Harvester Co., [41] a case on all fours with the case at bar. In Peters, two named plaintiffs sued on behalf of themselves and 104 employees to recover damages resulting from illegal deductions taken from their wages by the defendant employer. The court noted that each employee had a separate cause of action for damages, but held that the case could proceed as a class action under sec. 260.12, Stats. As this court pointed out in Pipkorn v. Brown Deer [42] in describing the Peters case: . . . Each of the members of the class had a complete and separate cause of action for a different amount, but the common or general interest was the alleged unlawful act of the employer. Peters is controlling here. Both Peters and the case at bar involve suits by a class of employees against their employer. In each case, some allegedly unlawful act or series of identical acts of the employer injured each member of the class in the same way, but produced a different amount of damages. And in each case the employees had separate and distinct causes of action.