Court Opinion

ID: 9466750
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 01:26:21.767424+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:39:56.037604
License: Public Domain

OAKES, Circuit Judge
(concurring):
While I concur in Judge Van Graafeiland’s opinion as far as it goes, with respect it does not deal directly with the rather difficult issue whether Chamberlain lost his right to challenge the settlement when it was initially approved in 1976. Technically, it is true that Chamberlain “did not challenge the adequacy of the class representation or the general fairness of the settlement” and did not “contend that he had been denied an opportunity to be heard.” See 72 F.R.D. 64, 68 (S.D.N.Y.1976), aff’d, 556 F.2d 682 (2d Cir. 1977) (order approving settlement) (“Counsel for Chamberlain indicated that his concern was that the settlement might be a barrier to Chamberlain’s suit against the NBA. He had no other objection to the settlement.”). But he apparently refrained from doing so on the assumption that res judicata would not bar his other suit.
Judge Carter stated that “Chamberlain does not object to the settlement as long as his rights to continue his litigation remain unaffected by the Class covenant not to sue.” Id. at 70. But he refused to rule on the res judicata issue at that time, preferring instead to have a subsequent hearing. Id. This was probably appropriate. Cf. 7A Wright & Miller § 1789, at 176 (“[I]t is well settled that the court adjudicating a dispute cannot predetermine the res judicata effect of its own judgment; that can be tested only in a subsequent suit.”). But the result is that Chamberlain has never had a ruling on the fairness of the settlement as applied to him, if it is interpreted to bar his California claim.
The problem, as I see it, is that Chamberlain presented no facts to the district court, perhaps because there were none to present, to show that his case was not, as the district court ultimately concluded, Robertson v. National Basketball Association, 413 F.Supp. 88, 90 (S.D.N.Y.1976), “merely another variation on the allegedly anticompetitive practices” challenged in the overall law suit. The court therefore had no basis for concluding either that the settlement fund should be higher because of appellant’s special situation or that the distribution formula should be revised.