Opinion ID: 71242
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Andrews class

Text: 29 It may be true that, at a general level, the predominant issue presented in Andrews is whether the appellants were involved in the operation of illegal gambling schemes that used 900 numbers to facilitate caller participation. But as a practical matter, the resolution of this overarching common issue breaks down into an unmanageable variety of individual legal and factual issues. See Georgine v. Amchem Products, Inc., 83 F.3d 610, 626 (3rd Cir.1996) (stating that beyond broad common issues surrounding harmfulness of asbestos exposure, class members' claims against asbestos manufacturers varied widely in character and could not be tried on a class basis). The class's mail and wire fraud allegations, for example, are not wholly subject to class-wide resolution. See Pelletier v. Zweifel, 921 F.2d 1465, 1499-1500 (11th Cir.) (stating that each plaintiff must demonstrate reliance on deceptive conduct in furtherance of the alleged RICO scheme) (citations omitted), cert. denied, 502 U.S. 855, 112 S.Ct. 167, 116 L.Ed.2d 131 (1991); Alabama v. Blue Bird Body Co., 573 F.2d 309, 328-29 (5th Cir.1978) (expressing serious reservations about the manageability of a class when all damage questions cannot be handled by one forum). 30 With regard to the Andrews gambling claims, the biggest problems arise not so much in relation to the class plaintiffs' participation in the 900-number programs, but with the contours of the programs themselves. In assessing the gambling claims, aspects of each 900-number program will have to be individually examined to determine whether a particular program actually involves gambling or runs afoul of state gaming laws. For example, some programs were designed to involve skill or knowledge on the part of callers, while others appear to have depended only upon chance. Many 900-number programs also provided various means of free entry into contests or made more complete disclosures than others. In short, the 900-number programs implicated in Andrews cannot be lumped together and condemned or absolved en masse. 31 The appellants cite the need to interpret and apply the gaming laws of all fifty states to assess the legality of each 900-number program as foremost among the difficulties in trying the gambling claims on a class basis, and we agree. 900-number programs could conceivably be legal in one state but not in another. Scrutinizing hundreds of 900-number programs under the provisions of fifty jurisdictions complicates matters exponentially. See Georgine, 83 F.3d at 627; Kirkpatrick v. J.C. Bradford & Co., 827 F.2d 718, 725 (11th Cir.1987), cert. denied, 485 U.S. 959, 108 S.Ct. 1220, 99 L.Ed.2d 421 (1988); see also American Medical Systems, 75 F.3d at 1085 (stating that even where state laws differ only in nuance, nuance can be significant, leaving district court with the impossible task of instructing a jury on the relevant law) (citing Matter of Rhone-Poulenc Rorer Inc., 51 F.3d 1293, 1300 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 116 S.Ct. 184, 133 L.Ed.2d 122 (1995)); W.R. Grace, 6 F.3d at 188-89 (stating that use of subclasses to allow juries to consider different state laws will still pose management difficulties and reduce the judicial efficiency sought to be achieved through certification). 32 The plaintiffs contend that only the gaming laws of Nebraska, West-Interactive's home state, need to be construed in order to assess the legality of the games of chance implicated in Andrews, because a gambling business is illegal under RICO if it is illegal under the laws of any state in which its affairs are conducted. But this contention assumes that Nebraska law prohibits each of the 900-number programs encompassed by the suit. If this assumption fails, each program that is legal in Nebraska will have to be assessed under each class member's home state law. See Castano v. American Tobacco Co., 84 F.3d 734, 741-42 (5th Cir.1996) (stating that class action proponents must do more than merely assert that variations in state law are insignificant or academic; court cannot take class proponents' interpretations of law on faith) (citations omitted).