Opinion ID: 2975977
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Predominance Requirement

Text: A class action may be maintained only if it qualifies under one of the subsections of Rule 23(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Ball v. Union Carbide Corp., 385 F.3d 713, 728 n.12 (6th Cir. 2004). Under Rule 23(b)(3), a class action is appropriate where the court finds that the questions of law or fact common to the members of the class predominate over any questions affecting only individual members, and that a class action is superior to other available methods for the fair and efficient adjudication of the controversy. The matters pertinent to the findings include: (A) the interest of members of the class in individually controlling the prosecution or defense of separate actions; (B) the extent and nature of any litigation concerning the controversy already commenced by or against members of the class; (C) the desirability or undesirability of concentrating the litigation of the claims in the particular forum; (D) the difficulties likely to be encountered in the management of a class action. Fed. R. Civ. P. 23(b)(3). “The Rule 23(b)(3) predominance inquiry tests whether proposed classes are sufficiently cohesive to warrant adjudication by representation.” Windsor, 521 U.S. at 632; see also In re Visa Check/MasterMoney Antitrust Litig., 280 F.3d 124, 136 (2d Cir. 2001). To satisfy the predominance requirement in Rule 23(b)(3), “a plaintiff must establish that ‘the issues in the class action that are subject to generalized proof, and thus applicable to the class as a whole, . . . predominate over those issues that are subject only to individualized proof.’” In re Visa Check/MasterMoney Antitrust Litig., 280 F.3d at 136 (quoting Rutstein v. Avis Rent-A-Car Sys., Inc., 211 F.3d 1228, 1233 (11th Cir. 2000) (internal quotation marks omitted)). Further, “the fact that a defense ‘may arise and may affect different class members differently does not compel a finding that individual issues predominate over common ones.’” Id. at 138 (quoting Waste Mgmt. Holdings, Inc. v. Mowbray, 208 F.3d 288, 296 (1st Cir. 2000)). Lastly, “[c]ommon issues may predominate when liability can be determined on a class-wide basis, even when there are some individualized damage issues.” Id. at 139. Section 201(b) provides that “[a]ll charges, practices, classifications, and regulations for and in connection with such communication service, shall be just and reasonable, and any such charge, practice, classification, or regulation that is unjust or unreasonable is declared to be unlawful.” 47 U.S.C. § 201(b). Section 206 establishes that a common carrier is liable for conduct that violates section 201(b): In case any common carrier shall do, or cause or permit to be done, any act, matter, or thing in this chapter prohibited or declared to be unlawful, or shall omit to do any act, matter, or thing in this chapter required to be done, such common carrier shall be liable to the person or persons injured thereby for the full amount of damages sustained in consequence of any such violation of the provisions of this chapter, together with a reasonable counsel or attorney’s fee, to be fixed by the court in every case of recovery, which attorney’s fee shall be taxed and collected as part of the costs in the case. 47 U.S.C. § 206. Section 207 authorizes individuals injured by a common carrier’s actions to bring suit: Any person claiming to be damaged by any common carrier subject to the provisions of this chapter may either make complaint to the Commission as hereinafter provided for, or may bring suit for the recovery of the damages for which such common carrier may be liable under the provisions of this chapter, in any district court of the United No. 06-1565 Beattie, et al. v. CenturyTel, Inc. Page 9 States of competent jurisdiction; but such person shall not have the right to pursue both such remedies. 47 U.S.C. § 207. The FCC also enacted a regulation intended to clarify the meaning of § 201(b): Descriptions of billed charges. Charges contained on telephone bills must be accompanied by a brief, clear, non-misleading, plain language description of the service or services rendered. The description must be sufficiently clear in presentation and specific enough in content so that customers can accurately assess that the services for which they are billed correspond to those that they have requested and received, and that the costs assessed for those services conform to their understanding of the price charged. 47 C.F.R. § 64.2401(b). Further, in its report issued during the rulemaking process that led to the enactment of § 64.2401(b), the FCC explained: We contemplate that sufficient descriptions will convey enough information to enable a customer reasonably to identify and to understand the service for which the customer is being charged. Conversely, descriptions that convey ambiguous or vague information, such as, for example, charges identified as “miscellaneous,” would not conform to our guideline. Similarly, in our view, a charge described by what it is not, such as, for example,“service not regulated by the Public Service Commission” is inherently ambiguous and does not disclose sufficient information. There is no way for a consumer to discern from this description that the charge refers to, for example, inside wiring maintenance insurance. In the Matter of Truth-In-Billing and Billing Format, 14 F.C.C.R. 7492, at 7517-18 (Apr. 15, 1999) (internal footnotes omitted) (emphasis added). As the district court noted, “[t]he language chosen by the defendant to describe its optional inside wire maintenance service closely tracks the phrasiology criticized by the FCC as ‘inherently ambiguous,’ specifically as it might be applied to describe the very service at issue in this case.” Beattie, 234 F.R.D. at 166. Plaintiffs-Appellees conceded before the district court that § 201 is not a strict-liability statute and therefore they must establish “some type of injury” to allege a claim under §§ 201 and 206. Id. at 170. Contrary to CenturyTel’s argument, however, Plaintiffs-Appellees have raised common allegations which would allow the district court to determine liability for the class as a whole. First, Plaintiffs-Appellees allege that CenturyTel billed for WireWatch under the misleading description, “Non-Regulated Services,” in violation of § 201(b). (JA 18; Compl. ¶ 22.) The district court noted that “[t]he defendant’s custom of charging for its optional inside wire maintenance insurance under the heading ‘non-regulated services’ gives no hint at the services for which charges are assessed.” Beattie, 234 F.R.D. at 172 (stating that the WireWatch description “does not satisfy the FCC’s truth-in-billing requirement and constitutes an unreasonable practice within the meaning of section 201(b)”). As the FCC made clear in its regulation, § 201(b) is violated when the description for a billed service is not “sufficiently clear in presentation and specific enough in content so that customers can accurately assess that the services for which they are billed correspond to those that they have requested and received . . . .” 47 C.F.R. § 64.2401(b). Further, the FCC’s report specifically states that “a charge described by what it is not, such as, for example,‘service not regulated by the Public Service Commission’ is inherently ambiguous and does not disclose sufficient information.” In the Matter of Truth-In-Billing and Billing Format, 14 F.C.C.R. 7492, at 7517-18 (Apr. 15, 1999) (internal footnotes omitted). Thus, Plaintiffs-Appellees have set forth sufficient allegations to show that CenturyTel’s billing practice violated § 201(b), because the No. 06-1565 Beattie, et al. v. CenturyTel, Inc. Page 10 description used by CenturyTel is virtually identical to the misleading description the FCC condemned in its regulation and report. Second, under § 206, Plaintiffs-Appellees must establish that each class member was injured by CenturyTel’s violation of § 201(b). 47 U.S.C. § 206 (stating that a “common carrier shall be liable to the person or persons injured” by its unlawful practice). This can be done by showing that each class member paid for WireWatch during the period when the service was billed under the misleading description. Before the district court, CenturyTel admitted that “it did send some bills to customers that contained this language,” Beattie, 234 F.R.D. at 173, and an inventory of CenturyTel’s billing records could disclose which customers paid their bills in full, which would include a payment for fees associated with WireWatch. On appeal, CenturyTel argues that “only those customers who can establish that they did not want or request the WireWatch service can establish CenturyTel’s liability . . . .” (Appellant’s Br. 40.) CenturyTel is incorrect. Under § 206, CenturyTel is liable if it violated § 201(b), which makes it unlawful for CenturyTel to bill for a service under a misleading description, even where the customer requested the service. See 47 C.F.R. § 64.2401(b) (“The description must be sufficiently clear in presentation and specific enough in content so that customers can accurately assess that the services for which they are billed correspond to those that they have requested and received . . . .”). True, each class member will have to show that she did not enroll in WireWatch, but that is relevant, as the district court concluded, to the issue of damages and not liability. Thus, Plaintiffs-Appellees should be able to establish liability for the class as a whole because the misleading description used by CenturyTel violated § 201(b), and class members were injured by that violation when they paid their telephone bill, which included a charge for WireWatch under a misleading description (a § 206 violation).