Opinion ID: 746860
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Commonality and Typicality

Text: 10 More difficult are the questions of commonality and typicality. The commonality and typicality requirements tend to merge into one another, so that similar considerations animate analysis of Rules 23(a)(2) and (3). See General Tel. Co. of Southwest v. Falcon, 457 U.S. 147, 157 n. 13, 102 S.Ct. 2364, 2370 n. 13, 72 L.Ed.2d 740 (1982); Rossini v. Ogilvy & Mather, Inc., 798 F.2d 590, 597 (2d Cir.1986); 7 Wright & Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure § 1764 (1972). The crux of both requirements is to ensure that maintenance of a class action is economical and [that] the named plaintiff's claim and the class claims are so interrelated that the interests of the class members will be fairly and adequately protected in their absence. Falcon, 457 U.S. at 157 n. 13, 102 S.Ct. at 2370 n. 13. 11 The commonality requirement is met if plaintiffs' grievances share a common question of law or of fact. See In re Agent Orange Prod. Liab. Litig., 818 F.2d 145, 166-67 (2d Cir.1987); Baby Neal ex rel. Kanter v. Casey, 43 F.3d 48, 56 (3d Cir.1994); 3B Moore's Federal Practice & Procedure p 23.06-1 (1996). Typicality, by contrast, requires that the claims of the class representatives be typical of those of the class, and is satisfied when each class member's claim arises from the same course of events, and each class member makes similar legal arguments to prove the defendant's liability. In re Drexel Burnham Lambert, 960 F.2d at 291 (citing Eisen v. Carlisle & Jacquelin, 391 F.2d 555, 562 (2d Cir.1968), vacated on other grounds, 417 U.S. 156, 94 S.Ct. 2140, 40 L.Ed.2d 732 (1974)). 12 The defendants argue that, except at the grossest level of generality, there are no questions of law or fact common to the class and that no named plaintiff may convincingly assert that his or her claim is typical of the class. See K.L. ex rel. Dixon v. Valdez, 167 F.R.D. 688, 691 (D.N.M.1996) (refusing to certify similar class bringing variety of legal claims where no named Plaintiff and no putative class member has allegedly suffered violations of all or even most of the statutory and constitutional rights listed.). The defendants point out that each named plaintiff challenges a different aspect of the child welfare system. These include allegations of inadequate training and supervision of foster parents, the failure to properly investigate reports of suspected neglect and abuse, unconscionable delay in removing children from abusive homes, and the inability to secure appropriate placements for adoption, see Marisol A., 929 F.Supp. at 669-72. The claimed deficiencies implicate different statutory, constitutional and regulatory schemes. Further, the defendants note that no single plaintiff (named or otherwise) is affected by each and every legal violation alleged in the complaint, and that no single specific legal claim identified by the plaintiffs affects every member of the class. Thus, in light of the broad range of injuries which the named plaintiffs allegedly have suffered, defendants argue that the commonality and typicality requirements have not been satisfied. 13 The district court rejected these contentions, finding that the plaintiffs' claims satisfied the commonality and typicality requirements. The court identified as a common question of law whether each child has a legal entitlement to the services of which that child is being deprived. 929 F.Supp. at 690. It identified as a common question of fact whether defendants systematically have failed to provide these legally mandated services. Id. In characterizing the legal and factual issues in this way, the district court determined that the myriad constitutional, regulatory, and statutory provisions invoked by the plaintiffs are properly understood as creating a single scheme for the delivery of child welfare services and as setting standards of conduct for those charged with providing such services--standards that the defendants are alleged to have violated in a manner common to the plaintiff class by failing to operate and maintain a functioning child welfare system. The district court explained: 14 The unique circumstances of each child do not compromise the common question of whether, as plaintiffs allege, defendants have injured all class members by failing to meet their federal and state law obligations. Indeed, as plaintiffs argue, the actions or inactions of defendants are not isolated or discrete instances but, rather, form a pattern of behavior that commonly affects all of the proposed class members. 15 Id. at 690-91. 16 The core issue presented by this appeal is whether, by conceptualizing the common legal and factual questions at this high level of abstraction (or, understood differently, by aggregating all of the plaintiffs' claims into one super-claim), the district court abused the discretion granted it by Rule 23 to provide for the orderly and efficient maintenance of this lawsuit. 17 We find that the district court did not abuse its discretion by certifying this class at this time, notwithstanding our view, expressed in Section III, infra, that the creation of subclasses will be necessary. Three considerations compel this conclusion. First, Rule 23 is given liberal rather than restrictive construction, and courts are to adopt a standard of flexibility ... Sharif ex rel. Salahuddin v. New York State Educ. Dep't., 127 F.R.D. 84, 87 (S.D.N.Y.1989). The rule's inherent flexibility, and the district court's ability to manage the litigation as it develops, counsel against decertification. 18 Second, although the district court's generalized characterization of the claims raised by the plaintiffs stretches the notions of commonality and typicality, we simply cannot say that these claims are so unrelated that their aggregation necessarily violates Rule 23. The plaintiffs allege that their injuries derive from a unitary course of conduct by a single system, and the district court agreed. At this stage of the litigation, we see no basis for finding that the district court abused its discretion in this regard. 19 Finally, we note that the only other circuit court which has considered this very question has held that it was an abuse of discretion not to certify a class nearly identical to the one considered here. See Baby Neal, 43 F.3d at 64-65; cf. Jeanine B. ex rel. Blondis v. Thompson, 877 F.Supp. 1268, 1287 (E.D.Wisc.1995) (certifying two subclasses, one of children in foster care and one of children not in foster care about whom the county had received reports of neglect or abuse, where plaintiffs challenge[d] the operating practices of the ... foster-care system, and generally allege[d] that the ... program is systematically depriving children of their legal rights.). Although we believe that the district court is near the boundary of the class action device, we are not prepared to say that it has crossed into forbidden territory.