Court Opinion

ID: 9469609
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 02:45:06.110807+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:41:28.598886
License: Public Domain

ESCHBACH, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I would affirm the order of the district court. In Braunstein v. Eastern Photographic Laboratories, Inc., 600 F.2d 335 (2d Cir. 1978), cert. denied, 441 U.S. 944, 99 S.Ct. 2162, 60 L.Ed.2d 1046 (1979), the Second Circuit held that a district court has the power, in an appropriate case, to authorize or order notice to be sent to potential members of the plaintiff class. The majority today develops the position enunciated in Braunstein by adding that a district court also has the power to prescribe the substance of such notice. Majority opinion at 5. In view of the majority’s holding, I believe that the format of the notice, including the signature under which the notice is to be sent, is a detail that is best left to the discretion of the district court. See Johnson v. American Airlines, Inc., 531 F.Supp. 957 (N.D.Texas 1982) and Monroe v. United Air Lines, Inc., 90 F.R.D. 638 (N.D.Ill.1981) (notice to potential members of the plaintiff class, signed by plaintiffs or their attorneys, carried the following statement: “This notice has been authorized by the Honorable .........., the Judge to whom the case is assigned.”); Riojas v. Seal Produce, Inc., 82 F.R.D. 613 (S.D.Texas 1979) (notice to potential members of the plaintiff class signed by the Judge to whom the ease was assigned). Therefore, I dissent from the majority’s opinion to the extent that it holds that the district court erred in permitting the notice to be sent under its imprimatur.