Court Opinion

ID: 9915636
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2024-01-05 23:00:43.178334+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:17:32.590118
License: Public Domain

RECOMMENDED FOR PUBLICATION
                              Pursuant to Sixth Circuit I.O.P. 32.1(b)
                                     File Name: 24a0005p.06

                   UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
                                 FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT

                                                           ┐
 FREDERICK GRAINGER, JR.,
                                                           │
                                             Plaintiff,    │
                                                           │
 BRIAN BEHOVITZ,                                           │
                                                            >        No. 23-1230
                      Proposed Intervenor-Appellant,       │
                                                           │
       v.                                                  │
                                                           │
                                                           │
 OTTAWA COUNTY, MICHIGAN, by its Board of                  │
 Commissioners, et al.,                                    │
                        Defendants-Appellees.              │
                                                           ┘

                         Appeal from the United States District Court
                    for the Western District of Michigan at Grand Rapids.
                   No. 1:19-cv-00501—Paul Lewis Maloney, District Judge.

                                 Argued: December 7, 2023

                             Decided and Filed: January 5, 2024

                   Before: CLAY, GIBBONS, and GRIFFIN, Circuit Judges.

                                    _________________

                                          COUNSEL

ARGUED: Philip L. Ellison, OUTSIDE LEGAL COUNSEL PLC, Hemlock, Michigan, for
Appellant. Matthew T. Nelson, WARNER NORCROSS + JUDD, LLP, Grand Rapids,
Michigan, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Philip L. Ellison, OUTSIDE LEGAL COUNSEL PLC,
Hemlock, Michigan, E. Powell Miller, THE MILLER LAW FIRM, P.C., Rochester, Michigan,
for Appellant. Matthew T. Nelson, WARNER NORCROSS + JUDD, LLP, Grand Rapids,
Michigan, for Appellee.
 No. 23-1230                  Grainger, et al. v. Ottawa Cnty., Mich., et al.                            Page 2

                                            _________________

                                                  OPINION
                                            _________________

        CLAY, Circuit Judge. Three days after the district court denied Plaintiff Frederick
Grainger, Jr.’s motion for class certification based on his inability to serve as a class
representative, Brian Behovitz moved to intervene as a new putative class representative.
Behovitz now appeals the district court’s denial of his motion to intervene as of right and
permissively under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 24. For the reasons set forth below, we
AFFIRM the district court’s denial of Behovitz’s motion to intervene.

                                            I. BACKGROUND

                                  A. Grainger’s Putative Class Action

        On June 23, 2019, Grainger filed a putative class action complaint pursuant to Federal
Rule of Civil Procedure 23 against Ottawa County and other Michigan counties, alleging various
federal and state law claims. To recover unpaid property taxes, these counties foreclosed on
homes and sold them at auction. However, Grainger alleged that the counties had a policy of
retaining all the proceeds of these home foreclosure auctions, even if those proceeds vastly
exceeded the unpaid property taxes of the homeowners.1 Grainger owned property within
Ottawa County, Michigan. He had unpaid property taxes of $21,500 on his home, and Ottawa
County seized the property on April 1, 2013.                 In September 2013, 2 Ottawa County sold
Grainger’s property for $392,000 but never returned to Grainger the $370,500 difference
between Grainger’s outstanding taxes and the proceeds of the sale. After Grainger filed a second

        1Michigan counties’ practice of retaining the full proceeds from sales of foreclosed property has generated
much litigation. Both this Court and the Michigan Supreme Court have found that this practice constituted an
unlawful taking. The Michigan Supreme Court found that it violated the Takings Clause of the Michigan
Constitution, Rafaeli, LLC v. Oakland Cnty., 952 N.W.2d 434, 463 (Mich. 2020), and this Court found that it
violated the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution, Hall v. Meisner, 51 F.4th
185, 188 (6th Cir. 2022).
        2Although Grainger’s second amended complaint pleaded that Ottawa            County sold his property on
September 6, 2017, the district court noted that Grainger’s briefs consistently stated that Ottawa County sold his
property in September 2013. Moreover, the district court took judicial notice of the quit claim deed used to sell
Grainger’s property, which showed that the sale occurred in 2013.
 No. 23-1230                 Grainger, et al. v. Ottawa Cnty., Mich., et al.                 Page 3

amended complaint, all Defendants moved to dismiss his claims, and the district court granted in
part and denied in part these motions to dismiss.

        Grainger also filed a motion for class certification. The district court declined to certify
the class, finding that Grainger could not initiate a class action because his individual claims
were barred by the statute of limitations. Specifically, the district court found that Grainger’s
cause of action accrued when Ottawa County sold his property in 2013, making his federal
claims in this litigation—brought almost six years later—barred by the three-year statute of
limitations applicable to actions under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 in Michigan.

        Despite his untimely filing, the district court held that the statute of limitations for
Grainger’s individual claims was tolled by the Supreme Court’s related decisions in American
Pipe & Construction Co. v. Utah, 414 U.S. 538, 552–53 (1974) and Crown, Cork & Seal Co. v.
Parker, 462 U.S. 345, 353–54 (1983).           In these cases, the Supreme Court held that “the
commencement of a class action suspends the applicable statute of limitations as to all asserted
members of the class who would have been parties had the suit been permitted to continue as a
class action.” Crown, 462 U.S. at 353–54 (quoting American Pipe, 414 U.S. at 554). And the
statute of limitations remains tolled until a ruling on the class certification motion. Id. A parallel
class action to Grainger’s had been filed in 2014, see Wayside Church v. Van Buren County, No.
1:14-cv-1274 (W.D. Mich. filed Dec. 11, 2014), and, at the time the district court decided
Grainger’s motion for class certification, the Wayside class certification motion remained
pending. Because Grainger had been an absent class member in the Wayside litigation, the
district court found that his individual claims had been tolled, permitting Grainger to assert them
in the instant litigation.

        Even though Grainger could bring his individual claims, as the Supreme Court later
clarified in China Agritech, Inc. v. Resh, 138 S. Ct. 1800, 1806 (2018), the tolling rule
promulgated in American Pipe and Crown did not permit him to file a new class action.
Reasoning that the efficiency goals of American Pipe tolling are not served by permitting “a
plaintiff who waits out the statute of limitations to piggyback on an earlier, timely filed class
action,” the Supreme Court held in China Agritech that individuals who had their claims tolled
pursuant to American Pipe could not bring a successive class action. Id. In Grainger’s case, the
 No. 23-1230                   Grainger, et al. v. Ottawa Cnty., Mich., et al.                             Page 4

district court found that Grainger’s federal law claims were tolled pursuant to American Pipe due
to the Wayside litigation. Therefore, the district court held that China Agritech prevented
Grainger from bringing a successive class action and prevented the district court from granting
Grainger’s motion to certify the class.

                                    B. Behovitz’s Motion to Intervene

        On March 5, 2021, three days after the district court denied the motion for class
certification, Brian Behovitz moved to intervene as class representative. Behovitz experienced
the same type of alleged injury as Grainger. He failed to pay $9,400 in taxes on his property in
Barry County, Michigan.           Barry County sold the property at a tax foreclosure auction in
September 2018 for $131,000 and allegedly did not pay Behovitz any of the surplus of the sale.
In contrast to Grainger, Behovitz’s foreclosure sale took place less than three years before he
moved to intervene, so his claims were not yet time-barred, and China Agritech did not bar him
from initiating a new class action.

        Behovitz claimed that he had an interest in intervening to maintain the suit as a class
action and that he could not rely on Grainger to do so anymore. He also emphasized that courts
generally allow absent class members to intervene when the named representatives cannot
adequately represent the class. In addition to his request to intervene as of right, he requested
permissive intervention.

        The district court denied Behovitz’s motion to intervene as of right.3 First, it found that
Behovitz had no interest in the litigation because, after the denial of class certification, the
litigation became an individual dispute between Grainger and Ottawa County. Because Behovitz
had no interest in this individual dispute, the district court found that he had no interest to protect
through intervention. It further found that, even if Behovitz did have an interest in pursuing class
litigation for his claims, he did not need to intervene to do so because he could file his own
lawsuit. The district court made no finding as to whether Behovitz’s motion to intervene as of
right was timely.

        3Although Behovitz filed his motion on March 3, 2021, the district court did not rule on it until February 7,
2023—almost two years later. This delay was due to a stay imposed by the district court to await this Court’s ruling
in two similar class actions.
 No. 23-1230                  Grainger, et al. v. Ottawa Cnty., Mich., et al.                              Page 5

        As to permissive intervention, the district court assumed, without deciding, that
Behovitz’s motion was timely inasmuch as the court had “not yet issued a case management
order,” and the parties had yet to file motions for summary judgment. Op. and Order, R. 217,
Page ID #4920. It also assumed, without deciding, that Behovitz shared a common question of
law or fact with respect to the individual dispute between Grainger and Ottawa County.
Nonetheless, it denied permissive intervention because it found that Behovitz’s intervention
would cause undue delay to already prolonged litigation by requiring another round of briefing
and a ruling on a second class certification motion.

        The court further declined to permit Behovitz to intervene because his intervention could
introduce complications relating to Article III standing. In an order issued the same day as the
denial of Behovitz’s motion to intervene, the district court dismissed all Defendants except for
Ottawa County, finding that Grainger did not have Article III standing to bring a claim against
any of them. Grainger had argued that he had Article III standing to sue other counties based on
the juridical link doctrine, which provides that a class representative may sue multiple defendants
on behalf of the class even if all defendants did not injure the named representative. See Fox v.
Saginaw Cnty., 67 F.4th 284, 288 (6th Cir. 2023). The district court rejected the juridical link
theory because neither Supreme Court nor Sixth Circuit precedent had recognized the theory, and
because this Court and the Supreme Court have emphasized that Article III standing
requirements apply equally to class actions.4 In ruling on Behovitz’s motion to intervene, the
district court found that permitting Behovitz to serve as a named plaintiff would pose the same
Article III deficiencies as Grainger faced, weighing against permitting intervention.

        Finally, the district court held that permitting Behovitz to intervene would undermine the
holding of China Agritech. In that case, the Supreme Court stated that “American Pipe does not
permit the maintenance of a follow-on class action past expiration of the statute of limitations,”
138 S. Ct. at 1804, which the district court interpreted as meaning that Behovitz could not

        4This Court in Fox—decided after the district court’s orders in this case—firmly rejected using the juridical
link doctrine in a case where the named plaintiff challenged the same unlawful takings by Michigan counties.
67 F.4th at 288.
 No. 23-1230                   Grainger, et al. v. Ottawa Cnty., Mich., et al.                            Page 6

“transform a late-filed lawsuit into his own timely-filed action,” Op. and Order, R. 217, Page ID
#4922. Behovitz timely appealed the district court’s denial of his motion to intervene.

                                           C. Wayside Litigation

        Throughout this appeal, Behovitz has focused on the similar Wayside litigation—the
same class action that tolled Grainger’s statute of limitations as an absent class member—in
which the same district court preliminarily approved a settlement that Behovitz labels
“collusive.” Appellant’s Br., ECF No. 20, 15. But despite the many pages afforded to it in
Behovitz’s brief, the Wayside litigation is not the subject of this appeal; instead, it is the subject
of an entirely separate appeal taken by Grainger and Behovitz to challenge the approval of the
settlement. See In re: Frederick Grainger, Jr., et al., No. 23-0103 (6th Cir. filed Mar. 31, 2023).

        Wayside was filed in 2014, five years before Grainger filed his initial class action
complaint. It sought relief for a state-wide class of plaintiffs in nearly identical litigation to the
instant case.     Counsel for plaintiffs in Wayside and Grainger have been engaged in, in
Behovitz’s own words, a “leadership dispute” since Grainger filed his case in 2019. Appellant’s
Br., ECF No. 20, 17. Behovitz claims that the settlement is a reverse auction, 5 and that it is
collusive both in process and substance.              Behovitz argues throughout this appeal that the
Wayside litigation provides a basis for his intervention in the instant case.

                                              II.   DISCUSSION

                                          A. Intervention as of Right

        Our review of the district court’s denial of this motion to intervene is de novo. Blount-
Hill v. Zelman, 636 F.3d 278, 283 (6th Cir. 2011). “Although our consideration of the timeliness
of an application to intervene is ordinarily tempered by deference to the district court, we have
consistently applied a de novo standard to the issue where, as here, the district court failed to
make any factual findings in this regard.” Id.

        5A reverse auction occurs “when ‘the defendant in a series of class actions picks the most ineffectual class
lawyers to negotiate a settlement with in the hope that the district court will approve a weak settlement that will
preclude other claims against the defendant.’” Negrete v. Allianz Life Ins. Co. of N. Am., 523 F.3d 1091, 1099 (9th
Cir. 2008) (quoting Reynolds v. Beneficial Nat’l Bank, 288 F.3d 277, 282 (7th Cir. 2002)).
 No. 23-1230                   Grainger, et al. v. Ottawa Cnty., Mich., et al.                             Page 7

         The right of putative class members to intervene in an action is governed by Fed. R. Civ.
P. 24(a), the general rule addressing intervention as of right. See Crown, 462 U.S. at 350 n.4.
Rule 24(a) provides, in relevant part, that a court “must” allow intervention for anyone who:

         claims an interest relating to the property or transaction that is the subject of the
         action, and is so situated that disposing of the action may as a practical matter
         impair or impede the movant’s ability to protect its interest, unless existing parties
         adequately represent that interest.

Fed. R. Civ. P. 24(a)(2).6 The Sixth Circuit requires that proposed intervenors establish the
following four factors to intervene as of right:

         (1) the motion to intervene is timely; (2) the proposed intervenor has a substantial
         legal interest in the subject matter of the case; (3) the proposed intervenor’s
         ability to protect their interest may be impaired in the absence of intervention; and
         (4) the parties already before the court cannot adequately protect the proposed
         intervenor’s interest.

Coal. to Def. Affirmative Action v. Granholm, 501 F.3d 775, 779 (6th Cir. 2007) (citing Grutter
v. Bollinger, 188 F.3d 394, 397–98 (6th Cir. 1999)). The proposed intervenor must satisfy all
four elements of this standard to prevail on a motion to intervene as of right. Blount-Hill,
636 F.3d at 283. In this case, Behovitz has likely failed to identify a cognizable substantial
interest in the underlying litigation and has certainly failed to show that any asserted interest will
be impaired absent intervention. Because he has failed to satisfy all four of the factors for
intervention as of right, the district court did not err in denying his motion.

         1. Substantial Interest

         As an initial matter, we have serious concerns that Behovitz’s purported interest—
“pursuing his claim as a class action”—satisfies the substantial interest prong for intervention as
of right. Appellant’s Br., ECF No. 20, 38. To support their respective positions, both parties
point to two separate California district court cases, neither of which particularly aids our inquiry
on what appears to be an issue of first impression.

         6Rule 24(a)(1) provides for intervention as of right when an individual “is given an unconditional right to
intervene by a federal statute.” Behovitz did not argue in the district court and has not argued on appeal that he is
entitled to intervention as of right under this provision.
 No. 23-1230               Grainger, et al. v. Ottawa Cnty., Mich., et al.                      Page 8

       Although this Court “has opted for a rather expansive notion of the interest sufficient to
invoke intervention of right,” we have also acknowledged that “this does not mean that any
articulated interest will do.”    Coal. to Def. Affirmative Action, 501 F.3d at 780 (citations
omitted). “[P]roposed intervenors need not have ‘a specific legal or equitable interest’ in the
litigation for the interest to qualify as substantial.” Wineries of the Old Mission Peninsula Ass’n
v. Twp. of Peninsula, 41 F.4th 767, 772 (6th Cir. 2022) (quoting Michigan State AFL–CIO v.
Miller, 103 F.3d 1240, 1245 (6th Cir. 1997)). To rise to the level of a substantial interest, this
Court has held that the interest “must be significantly protectable.” Id. (citation omitted).

       This Court has previously acknowledged that property rights are the “most elementary
type” of protectable interest, id. (citation omitted), and has upheld the rights of individuals to
intervene when the outcome of the litigation would affect those property rights, see, e.g., United
States v. Detroit Int’l Bridge Co., 7 F.3d 497, 501 (6th Cir. 1993) (finding a substantial interest
when the litigation would condemn the proposed intervenor’s property); see also Wineries,
41 F.4th at 772–74 (holding that a potential diminishment in property values from litigation
seeking to enjoin enforcement of zoning ordinances constituted a substantial interest for
property-owner intervenors). And we have previously recognized a substantial interest even
when a proposed intervenor’s rights are not directly impacted by the ultimate decision on the
merits. See, e.g., Jansen v. City of Cincinnati, 904 F.2d 336, 342 (6th Cir. 1990) (finding a
substantial interest when the litigation would interpret a consent decree to which the proposed
intervenors were parties); see also Liberte Cap. Grp., LLC v. Capwill, 126 F. App’x 214, 219
(6th Cir. 2005) (“Although the [intervenors] do not have a substantial interest in the ultimate
resolution of the instant case on the merits, this fact alone does not justify the denial of leave to
intervene of right.”). Nevertheless, to our knowledge, we have never held that a proposed
intervenor has a substantial interest in the procedural mechanism by which litigation proceeds.
This lack of authority is sensible given that this type of procedural interest likely cannot suffice
to create “an interest relating to the property or transaction that is the subject of the action.” Fed.
R. Civ. P. 24(a)(2) (emphasis added).

       On appeal, Behovitz argues that the class action device changes the Rule 24 analysis
because absent putative class members have a right to intervene. To be sure, courts allow
 No. 23-1230                     Grainger, et al. v. Ottawa Cnty., Mich., et al.                                Page 9

intervention by absent class members of pre-certification or certified class actions when the
intervenors have shown that the named plaintiff does not adequately represent their interests.
See Standard Fire Ins. Co. v. Knowles, 568 U.S. 588, 594 (2013) (acknowledging that courts
may permit intervention by a new class representative when the named plaintiff is inadequate);
see also 3 William B. Rubenstein, Newberg and Rubenstein on Class Actions § 9:30 (6th ed.
2023) (“[M]embers of a class have a right to intervene if their interests are not adequately
represented by existing parties.”).7 But courts still apply the standard Rule 24 framework to
intervention by absent class members and, because class actions are representative of absent
class members’ interests, the substantial interest prong is readily satisfied. See In re Cmty. Bank
of N. Va., 418 F.3d 277, 314 (3d Cir. 2005) (“In the class action context, the second and third
prongs of the Rule 24(a)(2) inquiry are satisfied by the very nature of Rule 23 representative
litigation.”). By contrast, in this litigation, class certification has been denied. Consequently, as
the district court properly noted, the only claims before it were Grainger’s individual claims
against Ottawa County. Thus, the question presented in this case—as framed by Behovitz’s own
asserted interest—is whether the class action device itself provides a sufficient interest for
former putative absent class members to intervene following the denial of class certification. For
the reasons discussed above, it likely does not.

         Moreover, carrying Behovitz’s argument to its logical endpoint could result in “multiple
bites at the certification apple” for class counsel. Randall v. Rolls-Royce Corp., 637 F.3d 818,
827 (7th Cir. 2011); cf. Lidie v. California, 478 F.2d 552, 555 (9th Cir. 1973) (“[W]here the
original plaintiffs were never qualified to represent the class, a motion to intervene represents a
back-door attempt to begin the action anew, and need not be granted.”). Behovitz argues that his
intervention in the instant case should be required because class counsel did not know of the
China Agritech bar to Grainger’s claims until the district court denied class certification. Even if

         7Indeed, the Advisory Committee’s Notes to the 1966 amendment to Rule 24(a) specifically explain that
the Rule was changed to ensure that absent class members will be able to intervene as of right in this situation. Fed.
R. Civ. P. 24 advisory committee’s note to 1966 amendment. And Rule 23(d)(1)(B)(iii) specifically contemplates
the right of absent class members to intervene in a certified class action, stating that a court may issue orders that
“require . . . giving appropriate notice to some or all class members of . . . the members’ opportunity . . . to intervene
and present claims or defenses, or to otherwise come into the action.”
 No. 23-1230                    Grainger, et al. v. Ottawa Cnty., Mich., et al.                             Page 10

true, class counsel’s mistaken belief in the propriety of a class representative does not mandate
that the district court grant intervention as of right.8

         This is not to say that proposed intervenors seeking to act as a putative class
representative for an uncertified class may never intervene, as the district court could find that
they meet the less restrictive test for permissive intervention. Moreover, under different facts—
i.e., when the same defendant injured the proposed intervenor—it is possible that a proposed
intervenor could have a substantial interest in the underlying merits of the litigation. In this case,
Behovitz has not argued, nor could he, that he has any interest in the dispute between Grainger
and Ottawa County because his claim is against a different county for an entirely different
transaction. To hold that pursuing the class action device alone constitutes a sufficient interest
for intervention as of right would mean that whenever putative class representatives are deemed
to be inadequate, the district court must allow a proposed intervenor to continue in the class
representative’s stead if the motion to intervene is timely. Despite our concerns with Behovitz’s
proposed substantial interest, in light of the insufficient briefing on this issue of first impression,
we need not decide the issue today.                Even if this purported interest could be a basis for
intervention, Behovitz has not shown that his ability to pursue his claims as a class action would
be limited without intervention.

         2. Interest Impaired Absent Intervention

         The third factor requires Behovitz to show that his “interest may be impaired in the
absence of intervention.” Coal. to Def. Affirmative Action, 501 F.3d at 779. We have previously
acknowledged that “[t]his burden is minimal,” and only requires a showing that “disposition of
the present action would put the movant at a practical disadvantage in protecting its interest.”
Wineries, 41 F.4th at 774 (alteration in original) (citations omitted). However, as with the
substantial interest requirement, this generous treatment does not render the impairment prong a

         8Defendants argue and the district court held that requiring intervention in this case would also contravene
China Agritech’s goal of preventing follow-on class actions; however, this is too broad a reading of China
Agritech’s holding and reasoning. 138 S. Ct. at 1804. It prohibited absent class members from using American Pipe
tolling to toll their own statute of limitations to file a later class action. Id. It acknowledged that the opposite
holding could create endless tolling of the statute of limitations, as every time a class action was filed, absent class
members’ claims would be tolled. Id. at 1809. But Behovitz’s claims are timely, and, as such, the situation
contemplated by China Agritech is not implicated.
 No. 23-1230               Grainger, et al. v. Ottawa Cnty., Mich., et al.                  Page 11

dead letter. For example, in Liberte, an unpublished case, this Court found the prong unsatisfied.
126 F. App’x at 220. Although proposed intervenors would be affected by an order in the
underlying litigation, the order did not collaterally estop the intervenors from challenging its
holding in separate litigation, nor did it bind them to its holding in the separate litigation. Id. In
other words, because the Court found that the intervenors could press their claims in separate
litigation, their interests would not be impaired absent intervention. Id. Other circuits have
similarly found that intervention is not required when it would only prevent litigants from facing
the inconvenience of filing their claims in other litigation. See, e.g., Gautreaux v. Pierce, 743
F.2d 526, 535 (7th Cir. 1984) (“Refusing to allow intervention effectively would require only
that Intervenors refile their motions and supporting documents in another lawsuit which would
also be considered by a district judge. Under these circumstances, refusing to allow intervention
will cause little if any inconvenience that would not also exist if we allowed intervention.”);
Blake v. Pallan, 554 F.2d 947, 954 (9th Cir. 1977) (“Mere inconvenience to the [intervenor]
caused by requiring him to litigate separately is not the sort of adverse practical effect
contemplated by Rule 24(a)(2).”).

       Even if Behovitz could show that pursuing litigation as a class action constitutes a
substantial interest, he has not shown that this interest will be impaired if he cannot intervene and
continue this litigation as a class action. At the time he filed his motion to intervene, he could
have filed his own class action; his claims were not barred by the statute of limitations, and there
is no indication that the existence of other class actions addressing the same issues would have
prevented him from initiating a new action. In response, Behovitz argues that the purportedly
collusive settlement in the Wayside litigation gave rise to the need to intervene in this litigation
to pursue his class claims.     He claims that the proposed settlement in Wayside “poses an
existential risk to his interest in having this case litigated as an adversarial class action, as
opposed to its resolution through a collusive and inadequate settlement.” Appellant’s Br., ECF
No. 20, 40. Nevertheless, this does not explain why intervention, rather than initiating a new
lawsuit, is required.   Moreover, the proper mechanism to air grievances with the Wayside
settlement is in an appeal directed at the Wayside settlement, which Behovitz has already filed.
See In re: Frederick Grainger, Jr., et al., No. 23-0103 (6th Cir. filed Mar. 31, 2023).
 No. 23-1230                   Grainger, et al. v. Ottawa Cnty., Mich., et al.                            Page 12

Alternatively, Behovitz could, as he also has, opt out of the Wayside litigation.9 Pursuing his
claims in this class action is not the only way, nor the proper way, to attempt to contest the
Wayside settlement.

         Behovitz points to an Eleventh Circuit case that he claims supports the idea that his desire
to oppose the purportedly collusive settlement in Wayside supports intervention here. In that
case, two class actions were filed, and one proceeded to a settlement that the other named
plaintiffs deemed collusive. Tech. Training Assocs., Inc. v. Buccaneers Ltd., 874 F.3d 692, 694
(11th Cir. 2017). The named plaintiffs of the non-settled class action moved to intervene in the
settled class action to challenge the settlement. Id. at 695. The Eleventh Circuit ruled that
intervention as of right was required. Id. at 698. It emphasized that, despite the remedies
available to the intervenors under Rule 23, their interests would be impaired absent intervention
because they would be bound by the purportedly inadequate class settlement in the underlying
litigation. Id. at 696–98. Behovitz’s use of this decision to support his intervention into this
matter is inapposite as he will not be bound by any decision in Grainger. The situation in
Technology Training is more akin to Behovitz’s attempt to intervene in Wayside for purposes of
opposing the settlement and provides little support for his intervention in Grainger to continue
the class litigation.

         Finally, Behovitz acknowledges that he could file a separate class action. He argues,
however, that courts regularly permit intervention by absent class members in class actions,
rather than have them begin litigation anew.                To be sure, he is correct that courts allow
intervention in certified or pre-certification class actions when, for example, the named
plaintiff’s claims become moot, or the named plaintiff is deemed inadequate to represent the
class. As to the former, this intervention is widely granted, in part, to avoid concerns that
defendants in class actions will pick off named plaintiffs in an effort to eliminate the class action
itself. See Deposit Guaranty Nat’l Bank v. Roper, 445 U.S. 326, 339 (1980). This concern is not
present in this case. As to the latter, the Advisory Committee’s Notes to the 1966 amendment to

         9Behovitz contends that requiring him to opt out to pursue his grievances with the proposed settlement puts
him in an “impossible position” because, if he opts out, he cannot object to the settlement. Appellant’s Br., ECF No.
20, 40. But, again, this supposedly impossible position is a choice he must make as to how to properly challenge the
Wayside litigation. It does not give him a right to pursue a competing class action to do so.
 No. 23-1230                Grainger, et al. v. Ottawa Cnty., Mich., et al.                Page 13

Rule 24 specify why the interests of absent class members of at least a certified class action may
be impaired absent intervention when the named plaintiff is inadequate. Because any outcome of
the class litigation could bind class members, absent intervention, the class members would have
to risk being bound by the judgment if a later collateral attack on the named plaintiff’s
representation were not successful:

        A class member who claims that his “representative” does not adequately
        represent him, and is able to establish that proposition with sufficient probability,
        should not be put to the risk of having a judgment entered in the action which by
        its terms extends to him, and be obliged to test the validity of the judgment as
        applied to his interest by a later collateral attack. Rather he should, as a general
        rule, be entitled to intervene in the action.

Fed. R. Civ. P. 24, advisory committee’s notes to 1966 amendment.

        By contrast, as a leading class action treatise has acknowledged, when class certification
has been denied, this interest in intervention changes: “In that instance, the ongoing case can
have no preclusive effect on putative absent class members; the would-be intervenors therefore
retain the ability to file their own suits, and hence, their interests are unlikely to even be
‘practically’ impaired.” 3 William B. Rubenstein, Newberg and Rubenstein on Class Actions §
9:34 (6th ed. 2023) (footnotes omitted). In this case, Behovitz could have filed his own class
action rather than seeking to intervene in this litigation. Because Behovitz has not established
that his interest—to the extent it exists—may be impaired absent intervention, he has not
established that he is entitled to intervene as of right.

                                    B. Permissive Intervention

        We review the denial of permissive intervention for an abuse of discretion. Coal. to Def.
Affirmative Action, 501 F.3d at 784 (citing Purnell v. City of Akron, 925 F.2d 941, 951 (6th Cir.
1991)). “A district court abuses its discretion only when we are ‘left with the definite and firm
conviction that the court below committed a clear error of judgment in the conclusion it reached
upon a weighing of the relevant factors or where the trial court improperly applies the law or
uses an erroneous legal standard.’” Id. at 779 (quoting Paschal v. Flagstar Bank, 295 F.3d 565,
576 (6th Cir. 2002)).
 No. 23-1230                Grainger, et al. v. Ottawa Cnty., Mich., et al.                Page 14

        Rule 24(b)(1)(B) states that “[o]n timely motion, the court may permit anyone to
intervene who . . . has a claim or defense that shares with the main action a common question of
law or fact.”    Further, “[i]n exercising its discretion, the court must consider whether the
intervention will unduly delay or prejudice the adjudication of the original parties’ rights.” Fed.
R. Civ. P. 24(b)(3). Thus, a district court may exercise discretion to permit a timely motion for
intervention by a party who has stated a common question of law or fact, and must, in exercising
this discretion, “balance undue delay and prejudice to the original parties.” United States v.
Michigan, 424 F.3d 438, 445 (6th Cir. 2005).

        As stated, the district court assumed that Behovitz’s motion was timely and that he
alleged a question of law or fact common to Grainger. However, it found that permitting
Behovitz to intervene would further delay resolving the dispute because it would require the
parties to brief, and the district court to decide, a second motion for class certification. This was
not an abuse of discretion, as Behovitz specifically sought to intervene to renew the class action
aspect of the litigation. Furthermore, the district court explained that Behovitz’s intervention
could create additional “complications,” which could represent a finding that the intervention
could create undue delays and prejudice the original parties. Op. and Order, R. 217, Page ID
#4920. Both findings were supported. As stated, were Behovitz to intervene and attempt to
certify a class, based on the district court’s rejection of the juridical link doctrine—supported by
this Court’s later rejection of the doctrine, see Fox, 67 F.4th at 288—standing issues would arise.
To establish Article III standing, Behovitz would have to seek the addition of multiple new
plaintiffs to create a case or controversy between plaintiffs and each county named in the second
amended complaint. Alternatively, if Behovitz were the only named plaintiff, as the district
court noted, it would have to permit all counties to relitigate their motions to dismiss or sua
sponte dismiss all counties other than Ottawa and Barry. Moreover, as the district court also
acknowledged, all other counties had been dismissed from the litigation at this point—albeit, on
the same day that the district court decided Behovitz’s motion to intervene. Requiring all of
these counties to rejoin the litigation after dismissal would certainly prejudice them and cause
further delays in the litigation.
 No. 23-1230               Grainger, et al. v. Ottawa Cnty., Mich., et al.                Page 15

       On appeal, Behovitz argues that his interest in class certification and in opposing the
Wayside settlement “outweighs any ‘prejudice.’” Appellant’s Br., ECF No. 20, 45. But, as
stated above, he likely does not have an interest in class certification, and this motion to
intervene is not the proper vehicle to pursue his interest in opposing the Wayside settlement. He
also argues that the district court should not have cited delays in the litigation as reason to deny
his motion when it took the court nearly two years to rule on his motion to intervene. But this
delay by the district court was the result of a stay of the entire Grainger litigation while this
Court determined legal issues crucial to the case, not because of any lack of diligence. For all
these reasons, the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying Behovitz’s motion for
permissive intervention.

                                      III. CONCLUSION

       For the reasons stated above, the district court’s denial of Behovitz’s motion to intervene
as of right and permissively is AFFIRMED.