Opinion ID: 3011431
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Class Certification Issues

Text: The plaintiffs further contend that since they have sought class certification, see supra note 1, they should be treated as a class pending the court's determination on that issue. Some courts have uncritically treated a group as a collective when a would-be class has petitioned for certification. See, e.g., Hinckley v. Kelsey-Hayes Co., 866 F.Supp. 1034 (E.D. Mich. 1994). In Hinckley, the court found irreparable harm to the 500 plaintiffs when only one of the two named plaintiffs in the proposed class presented evidence of threatened harm, and none demonstrated that money would not be an effective compensation. See id. at 1044-45. The court based its order, in part, on the fact that it was dealing with a potential class. [T]he court will take into consideration the irreparable harm faced by putative class members before class certification because of the nature of injunctive relief at this stage of the litigation. Id. Likewise, in Lapeer Cty. Medical Care Facility v. Michigan, 765 F.Supp. 1291, 1301 (W.D. Mich. 1991), the court treated a group of noncertified plaintiffs as a class. The court analogized the preliminary injunction order to dismissal orders and compromise negotiations, in which a court can treat a non-certified potential class as a unit. Cf. Musto v. American General Corp., 615 F.Supp. 1483, 150405 (M.D. Tenn. 1985), rev'd on other grounds, 861 F.2d 897 (6th Cir. 1988) (treating certified class collectively for irreparable harm determination). We disagree. We see no reason why the pendency of a class action certification petition should alter our analysis. We have no basis on which to judge the viability of the class certification request, which we understand to be 23 contested. Merely petitioning for class certification cannot provide plaintiffs the right to be treated collectively. Furthermore, a class action determination focuses on similarities between the legal claims of the parties, see Fed. R. Civ. P. 23(a), while a preliminary injunction determination, by requiring a showing of irreparable harm, depends in many cases (including this one) on circumstances entirely independent of legal rights: the particular resources available to each member of the class to weather hardships pending a trial.