Court Opinion

ID: 9649266
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 14:47:09.116617+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:09.505073
License: Public Domain

Robert L. Brown, Justice, concurring. I agree with the majority opinion but feel constrained to emphasize an additional point. We have held many times that broad discretion vests in the trial courts to grant class certifications. See, e.g., Security Benefit Life Insur. Co. v. Graham, 306 Ark. 39, 810 S.W.2d 943 (No. 90-248, June 10, 1991); Lemarco, Inc. v. Wood, 305 Ark. 1, 804 S.W.2d 724 (1991); First Nat’l Bank of Fort Smith v. Mercantile Bank of Jonesboro, 304 Ark. 196, 801 S.W.2d 38 (1990); Cooper Communities, Inc. v. Sarver, 288 Ark. 6, 701 S.W.2d 364 (1986); Drew v. First Federal Savings & Loan Assoc, of Ft. Smith, 271 Ark. 667, 610 S.W.2d 876 (1981). We have also held that that broad discretion does not mean unlimited discretion. See Ford Motor Credit Co. v. Nesheim, 287 Ark. 78, 696 S.W.2d 732 (1985). The decision today, in my judgment, does not weaken or undermine this wide grant of authority in the trial courts or in any way signal that we intend to decide class certification issues on a case-by-case basis. The decision, rather, emphasizes once more the policy this court first recognized in 1988 not to disfavor class actions. See International Union of Electrical Radio and Machine Workers v. Hudson, 295 Ark. 107, 747 S.W.2d 81 (1988). Here an accident occurred common to all potential class members. The alleged liability, injury, and damages emanating from that accident embrace common issues such as duty of care and foreseeability which predominate over issues affecting only individual members. Thus, a critical criterion of Ark. R. Civ. P. 23(b) is satisfied. By deciding common issues, efficiency is achieved, even though other issues remain to be decided, and we have previously recognized that fact. See Lemarco, Inc. v. Wood, 305 Ark. 1, 804 S.W.2d 724 (1991). That is not to say that considerable variance may well exist among class members relating to causation, injury, and damages •— a state of affairs that clearly troubled the trial court. But, again, the common predominating issues compel certification, and I see no superior method for adjudication.