Opinion ID: 1449245
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The proposed class includes an extremely large number of uninjured members

Text: Pennington contends that, if Coca-Cola divulged its use of saccharin, she and many other consumers would not have purchased fountain Diet Coke. However, Pennington's proposed class undoubtedly includes an extremely large number of uninjured class members, that is, those who did not care if the Diet Coke they purchased contained saccharin. Many consumers had no choice of the brand of fountain diet cola they purchased at any given location, let alone the particular type of sweetener used in one brand, Diet Coke. Pennington's own expert witness indicated that only twenty percent of those who currently consume fountain Diet Coke would not continue to do so if they knew it contained saccharin. In other words, eighty percent of the putative class suffered no injury. Pennington fails to provide an estimate of the number of potential class members. Because of the presumably large number of individuals who purchased fountain Diet Coke in Missouri, her proposed class could include millions who [were not injured] and thus have no grievance under section 407.025. Oshana, 472 F.3d at 514. Pennington attempts to address this problem by arguing that this Court should imply irreparable harm to each putative class member. The court of appeals has previously implied such harm in Merchandising Practices Act cases. See, e.g., State ex rel. Nixon v. Beer Nuts, Ltd., 29 S.W.3d 828, 838 (Mo.App. 2000). However, courts typically only make this assumption in suits for injunctive relief brought by the attorney general, [8] not actions for damages brought by individual consumers. See Clement v. St. Charles Nissan, Inc., 103 S.W.3d 898, 900 and n. 3 (Mo.App.2003); State ex rel. Webster v. Milbourn, 759 S.W.2d 862, 864 (Mo.App.1988).