Opinion ID: 6346803
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: national forced labor class

Text: We can dispense with CoreCivic’s first two challenges to the National Forced Labor class easily, as these challenges are virtually identical to those directed at the California Forced Labor class. For the same reasons discussed above, the district court did not abuse its discretion in concluding that Owino presented significant proof of a class-wide policy of forced labor. Likewise, the district court did not abuse its discretion in concluding that common questions predominate over individual ones. CoreCivic’s argument that the TVPA necessitates a subjective, individualized inquiry fails due to contrary language in the statute, see, e.g., 18 U.S.C. § 1589(c)(2) (defining “serious harm” as that which would compel a “reasonable person” to perform or continue performing labor to avoid incurring such harm), as well as the broader predominance test prescribed by precedent. Tyson Foods, 577 U.S. at 453. However, CoreCivic’s appeal with respect to personal jurisdiction is not resolved by what we wrote, above, with respect to the National Forced Labor class. See BristolMyers Squibb Co. v. Superior Ct. of Cal., 137 S. Ct. 1773 (2017). The district court ruled that CoreCivic had waived its personal jurisdiction challenge with respect to the claim of the non-California-facility class members, because it did not raise such a defense in its first responsive pleadings (which CoreCivic filed after the Supreme Court decided Bristol-Myers Squibb). After the district court’s ruling and after CoreCivic filed its opening brief in this appeal, the Ninth Circuit squarely addressed this issue: prior to class certification, a defendant does “not have ‘available’ a Rule 12(b)(2) personal jurisdiction defense to the claims of 16 OWINO V. CORECIVIC unnamed putative class members who were not yet parties to the case.” Moser v. Benefytt, Inc., 8 F.4th 872, 877 (9th Cir. 2021). Although Owino maintains that Moser was wrongly decided, we have no authority to ignore circuit precedent. See Miller v. Gammie, 335 F.3d 889, 900 (9th Cir. 2003) (en banc). Owino’s challenge to the merit of CoreCivic’s personal jurisdiction defense is an issue for the district court to resolve. See Moser, 8 F.4th at 879. We decline to vacate the certification of the National Forced Labor class, but we hold that CoreCivic retains its personal jurisdiction defense and remand the personal jurisdiction question to the district court for consideration at the appropriate time.