Court Opinion

ID: 9750408
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 14:57:04.497134+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:26:09.384057
License: Public Domain

ZAPPALA, Justice,
dissenting.
The procedural rules governing class actions reflect a deliberate policy decision that where monetary recovery alone is sought, the propriety of maintaining an action as a class action must include consideration of the relative expense and effort of judicial administration of the action and the amount which may be recovered by the members of the class. Pa.R.C.P. 1708(a)(7) expresses an underlying philosophy that the class action vehicle should not serve as the sword in a Pyrrich victory. Such a philosophy is necessarily a divisive one, subject to the disapproval of those who would value the individual’s right to recover even an admittedly insignificant award of damages more highly than the burden placed upon the scant resources of our common pleas courts.
The emphasis of the majority and of the Superior Court is mistakenly placed upon the parties’ expenses and efforts of proceeding with the action. The primary concern expressed by Rule 1708(a)(7) is for judicial resources. The explanatory note to the Rule recognizes the struggle of opposing philosophies, which we have resolved in favor of an approach which will conserve judicial resources:
The second additional criterion permits the court to consider whether the damages which may be recovered by individual class members will be so small in relation to the expense and effort of administering the action as not to justify a class action, with its attendant burdens on the judicial system and judicial manpower.
*225The Uniform Class Action Act in Sec. 3(a) uses somewhat similar criteria requiring the court to consider whether in view of the complexities of the issues and the expenses of the litigation the claims of the individual class members are insufficient to afford significant relief to the members of the class. This criterion points up a policy question on which opinion between plaintiffs and defendants is sharply divided.
In many consumer class actions the individual amounts may be very small, but the aggregate may be large and maintenance of the class action might have a deterrent effect on future violations by the defendant. Also, if the defendant’s conduct is egregious, compelling refunds, even of inconsequential amounts, may be desirable from a public policy point of view. Perhaps the remedy may be legislative rather than procedural.
■ The individual members of the proposed class in this case will recover only a monetary award averaging $13.61 per member. The $13.61 sum is an inflated figure in relation to the actual average recovery which any class member will receive because it does not reflect the downward adjustment to the award which will be made after deductions for attorneys’ fees and costs. Accepting the $13.61 figure as the average recovery for our purposes, I must agree with the trial court that the recovery is so small in relation to the burden upon the judicial system’s resources as to not justify a class action.
Whatever the philosophy of the majority of this Court may now be, it is inappropriate to disregard our own procedural rules when they reflect a conscious choice of an opposing philosophy. Though our class action rule is derived in large part from Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(b), the criterion established by Pa.R.C.P. 1708(a)(7) is not found in that comparable Federal rule. If the majority now regrets departing from the federal class action rules, it should refashion our rule to conform to its newly adopted philosophy.
*226I, for one, would not do so. The common pleas courts are not small claims courts. Grouping small individual claims as a class does not make them more important than small individual claims that cannot find similar claims to join with to create a class. I fear that the interest generated in the recovery of small monetary claims has less to do with laudatory ideals of seeking justice for the “underdog”, than with practical concerns of creating fees. The conduct of the Appellant in this case was not of such a nature that compelling refunds would be desirable as a matter of public policy. It must be recognized that the individual members of the class would not be left without a forum to pursue their claims if the action is not certified as a class. If one’s reaction to requiring the individuals to seek recovery in a small claims court is that the individuals will not pursue their claims because the recovery is not worth the individual’s effort, I must respond that the same is true of expending judicial effort. What is sought here has little to do with the policy of vindicating of individual rights.
In Klemow v. Time, 466 Pa. 189, 352 A.2d 12 (1976), we held that trial courts are vested with broad discretion in determining the propriety of maintaining the action on behalf of the class. “An abuse of discretion is not merely an error of judgment, but if in reaching a conclusion the law is overridden or misapplied, or the judgment exercised is manifestly unreasonable, or the result of partiality, prejudice, bias or ill will, as shown by the evidence, discretion is abused.” In Re Women’s Homoeopathic Hospital of Philadelphia, 393 Pa. 313, 316, 142 A.2d 292, 294 (1958) (Citation omitted).
The majority acknowledges this standard of review, but cannot reasonably be said to have applied it. When the trial judge is vested with the responsibility of making a determination, it is not an abuse of discretion if the trial judge does not arrive at a conclusion favored by an appellate court. I would affirm the trial court’s denial of the certification of the class action.