Opinion ID: 808599
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Damages are “Incidental” to Injunctive Relief

Text: Since no damages are part of this case’s class certification, the bankruptcy court did not abuse its discretion when, after three days of hearings and consideration of extensive supporting evidence, it concluded that the Rule 23(b)(2) requirement that damages must be sufficiently incidental to injunctive relief was met. “[Trial] courts ‘are in the best position to assess whether a monetary remedy is sufficiently incidental to a claim for injunctive or declaratory relief.’” Casa Orlando Apartments, 624 F.3d at 201 (quoting Allison, 151 F.3d at 416). The bankruptcy court recognized that, “monetary relief, to be viable in a [R]ule 23(b)(2) class, must ‘flow directly from liability to the class as a whole on the claims forming the basis of the injunctive or declaratory relief,’” and properly applied the relevant analysis from Wilborn II to Plaintiffs’ damages claims, denying class certification for those issues. The bankruptcy court then held that Rule 23(b)(2)’s predominance requirement was easily satisfied since only injunctive relief was at issue.13 Since no monetary relief is sought, 13 The bankruptcy court’s limited grant of class certification is especially appropriate because “a court should certify a class on a claim-by-claim basis, treating each claim individually and certifying the class with respect to only those claims for which certification is appropriate.” Bolin, 231 F.3d at 976. According to Bolin, “Rule 23(c)(4) explicitly recognizes the flexibility that courts need in class certification by allowing certification ‘with respect to particular issues’ and division of the class into subclasses.” Id. 12 Case: 11-40056 Document: 00511988853 Page: 13 Date Filed: 09/14/2012 No. 11-40056 monetary relief cannot be more than incidental to injunctive relief. This comports with our reasoning in James that since “much of the requested redress is pure injunctive relief,” the pure injunctive relief “does not implicate a concern about monetary damages.” 254 F.3d at 572; see also Allison, 151 F.3d at 411 (explaining that class certification would have been proper if the plaintiffs were only seeking injunctive relief because the plain language of Rule 23(b)(2) would have been satisfied). Because the bankruptcy court’s decision was not an abuse of discretion, we affirm its grant of class certification for Plaintiffs’ injunctive relief claim.