Opinion ID: 1909099
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Class Certification Orders

Text: In Ex parte Green Tree Financial Corp., 684 So.2d 1302, 1307 (Ala.1996), this Court stated: [T]he one against whom certification has been entered has a clear legal right to a writ [of mandamus] directing that the class action certification be set aside if the party seeking class action certification failed to carry the burden of producing sufficient evidence to satisfy the requirements of Rule 23in the event of such a failure, the trial court's certification of the action as a class action constitutes an abuse of discretion. (Emphasis added; citations omitted.) The plaintiff's sufficient evidence must appear in the trial court's rigorous analysis of the Rule 23 criteria before class certification is proper. See Ex parte Citicorp Acceptance Co., 715 So.2d 199, 204 (Ala.1997); see generally Green Tree, 684 So.2d at 1308. Rule 23(a) contains four criteria that must be supported by evidence and that must be rigorously analyzed before a class can be certified: (1) numerosity; (2) commonality; (3) typicality; and (4) adequacy of representation. In Green Tree, 684 So.2d at 1307, this Court held that an order that merely parrots the formulaic language of Rule 23(a) is insufficient to support class certification. Accord Citicorp, 715 So.2d at 203 ([C]lass actions may not be approved lightly and ... the determination of whether the prerequisites of Rule 23 have been satisfied requires a `rigorous analysis.'); Weathers v. Peters Realty Corp., 499 F.2d 1197, 1200 (6th Cir. 1974) (There must be an adequate statement of the basic facts to indicate that each requirement of the rule is fulfilled.).
The Birmingham Water Works Board contends that the named plaintiff in the Wallace Action failed to present sufficient evidence to support a finding of the class-certification criteria provided in Rule 23, Ala. R. Civ. P. Thus, the Birmingham Water Works Board asserts, class certification is improper because the trial court's order does not contain a sufficiently rigorous analysis of the Rule 23 criteria with respect to the specific facts of that case. We agree. In support of his motion for class certification, Wallace offered his own half-page affidavit, certain pages of his deposition, and representations of his counsel. Although the St. Clair Circuit Court held hearings, it did not allow the Birmingham Water Works Board to present a significant portion of its factual evidence. The insufficiency of the evidence is fatal to the requisite analysis of the Rule 23 criteria that a trial court must conduct before certifying a class action. See Citicorp, 715 So.2d at 204 (requiring that a trial court conduct a rigorous analysis of the certification criteria). In this case, the insufficiency of the evidence is reflected in the conclusory analysis of the Rule 23(a) typicality and adequacy criteria contained in the trial court's certification order. The order merely recites the requirement of these criteria and summarily concludes that both of these prerequisites are met. [1] Thus, the St. Clair Circuit Court abused its discretion in certifying the class in the Wallace Action. See Ex parte American Bankers Life Assurance Co., 715 So.2d 186 (Ala.1997) (holding that the trial court improperly certified a class because it had not conducted a rigorous analysis of the elements of commonality and typicality).
The Birmingham Water Works Board and the other defendants contend that the Jefferson Circuit Court's conditional certification of the class in the Rockett Action was also improper. The trial court conditionally certified the class without holding any hearings and without giving the Birmingham Water Works Board and the other defendants an adequate opportunity to contest the conditional certification. In Citicorp, 715 So.2d at 203, this Court stated: While conditional certification of a class action is allowed, simply labeling a class certification as `conditional' does not relieve the trial court of its obligation to conduct a rigorous analysis and to require the plaintiff to carry its burden of proof as to the appropriateness of class treatment under Rule 23(a). Accord Ex parte American Bankers Life Assurance Co., 715 So.2d 186, 191 (Ala. 1997) (Any further conditional order of the trial court must identify each of the four elements of Rule 23(a).). The trial court's order reflects few facts and contains no analysis of the application of the Rule 23 criteria to the facts of the case. Thus, the Jefferson Circuit Court abused its discretion in conditionally certifying the class in the Rockett Action.