Opinion ID: 4510978
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Ramirez and the Class

Text: The majority declares that “each member of a class certified under Rule 23 must satisfy the bare minimum of Article III standing at the final-judgment stage of a class action in order to recover monetary damages in federal court.” This principle, though, does not square with what happened at the trial, which opened with class counsel telling jurors that they would learn “the story of Mr. Ramirez.” And indeed they did. Jurors learned that a car dealership refused to grant Ramirez financing because his credit report flagged him as a “match” to a terrorist watch list, and that he was frightened, humiliated, and confused. He contacted TransUnion and was informed he was not on the watch list, but then received two separate mailings: one purporting to be his full credit report and making no mention of the terrorist watch list, and a subsequent letter informing Ramirez that he was a potential match for the terrorist watch list. The second letter omitted the summary of FCRA rights and grievance instructions contained in the first mailing. After closely reviewing both letters, Ramirez was at a loss, and cancelled a planned family vacation to Mexico. Only after consulting with an attorney and the Treasury Department did he finally compel TransUnion to remove his watch list designation. The story of the absent class members, in contrast, went largely untold. The jury learned class members requested a credit report from TransUnion and were sent separate mailings. The trial featured no evidence that absent class members received, opened, or read the mailings, nor that they were confused, distressed, or relied on the information in any way. There was no evidence that absent class members were denied credit, or expended any time or energy attempting to clear their name. It’s possible that other class RAMIREZ V. TRANSUNION 53 members—perhaps many others—had these experiences. But the hallmark of the trial was the absence of evidence about absent class members, or any evidence that they were in the same boat as Ramirez. The jury was left to assume that the absent class members suffered the same injury. But such conjecture is insufficient to confer Article III standing.