Opinion ID: 718631
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Core Liability Issues

Text: 16 The court defined core liability issues as common factual issues [of] whether defendants knew cigarette smoking was addictive, failed to inform cigarette smokers of such, and took actions to addict cigarette smokers. Common legal issues include fraud, negligence, breach of warranty (express or implied), strict liability, and violation of consumer protection statutes. 160 F.R.D. at 553. 17 The court found that the predominance requirement of rule 23(b)(3) was satisfied for the core liability issues. Without any specific analysis regarding the multitude of issues that make up core liability, the court found that under Jenkins v. Raymark Indus., 782 F.2d 468 (5th Cir.1986), common issues predominate because resolution of core liability issues would significantly advance the individual cases. The court did not discuss why core liability issues would be a significant, rather than just common, part of each individual trial, nor why the individual issues in the remaining categories did not predominate over the common core liability issues. 18 The only specific analysis on predominance analysis was on the plaintiffs' fraud claim. The court determined that it would be premature to hold that individual reliance issues predominate over common issues. Relying on Eisen v. Carlisle & Jacquelin, 417 U.S. 156, 94 S.Ct. 2140, 40 L.Ed.2d 732 (1974), the court stated that it could not inquire into the merits of the plaintiffs' claim to determine whether reliance would be an issue in individual trials. 160 F.R.D. at 554. Moreover, the court recognized the possibility that under state law, reliance can be inferred when a fraud claim is based on an omission. Accordingly, the court was convinced that it could certify the class and defer the consideration of how reliance would affect predominance. 19 The court also deferred substantial consideration of how variations in state law would affect predominance. Relying on two district court opinions, 11 the court concluded that issues of fraud, breach of warranty, negligence, intentional tort, and strict liability do not vary so much from state to state as to cause individual issues to predominate. The court noted that any determination of how state law variations affect predominance was premature, as the court had yet to make a choice of law determination. As for the consumer protection claims, the court also deferred analysis of state law variations, because there has been no showing that the consumer protection statutes differ so much as to make individual issues predominate. Id. 20 The court also concluded that a class action is superior to other methods for adjudication of the core liability issues. Relying heavily on Jenkins, the court noted that having this common issue litigated in a class action was superior to repeated trials of the same evidence. Recognizing serious problems with manageability, it determined that such problems were outweighed by the specter of thousands, if not millions, of similar trials of liability proceeding in thousands of courtrooms around the nation. Id. at 555-56. 21