Court Opinion

ID: 9468862
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 02:25:30.227971+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:41:05.415972
License: Public Domain

SCHROEDER, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part:
This is an appeal from a denial of class certification. The majority holds that the class should be certified despite the fact that the party seeking to represent the class has voluntarily settled all of his individual claims against the defendant.
I agree with the majority that, on the basis of the record presented to the district court at the time of its class certification ruling, the putative representative’s claim was typical of the claims of the class and that the class was sufficiently numerous to satisfy the requirements of Rule 23. I further agree with the statement by the majority in footnote 13 that any further proceedings should be conditioned upon active participation by counsel for plaintiff which the district court deems adequate.
I do not agree with the majority, however, that the appellant seeking to represent the class in this matter retains any personal stake after he has compromised all of his individual claims. The only person now before the court with anything tangible to gain from the litigation is the appellant’s lawyer; I am not alone in finding that situation distasteful. See, e.g., United States Parole Comm’n v. Geraghty, 445 U.S. 388, 422-24 & nn. 17, 18, 20 & 21, 100 S.Ct. 1202, 1222-23 & nn. 17, 18, 20 & 21, 63 L.Ed.2d 479 (1980) (Powell, J., dissenting); Deposit Guaranty Nat’l Bank v. Roper, 445 U.S. 326, 351, 353 & n. 13, 357, 100 S.Ct. 1166, 1180, 1181 & n. 13, 1183, 63 L.Ed.2d 427 (1980) (Powell, J., dissenting).
*1325Nevertheless, as I read the recent Supreme Court decisions in cases in which the representative party’s individual claims have become moot, there is no fixed requirement that the “personal stake” survive until the litigation has run its course. That was the holding in Sosna v. Iowa, 419 U.S. 393, 95 S.Ct. 553, 42 L.Ed.2d 532 (1975), where the named plaintiff’s claim became moot after the district court had granted class certification, and in Geraghty, supra, where the representative’s claim became moot after the district court had denied class certification. These decisions have shifted the focus of the inquiry in such cases from the justiciability of the putative representative’s claim, to the adequacy of his representation of the class. See Ger-aghty, supra, 445 U.S. at 405-06, 100 S.Ct. at 1214, quoting Sosna, supra, 419 U.S. at 403, 95 S.Ct. at 559; 7A C. Wright & A. Miller, Federal Practice & Procedure § 1776, at 39 (Supp.1981). See also Note, Class Standing and the Class Representative, 94 Harv.L.Rev. 1637, 1653-56 (1981).
The determination that class status should have been granted requires a further determination whether the representative plaintiff will continue to satisfy the requirements of Rule 23 that the class be fairly and adequately represented, notwithstanding the loss of a personal stake in the outcome.
13 C. Wright & A. Miller, supra, § 3533 at 40 (Pocket Part to Cumulative Supp. 1980).
The Supreme Court has indicated that what is needed is “vigorous advocacy,” which “can be assured through means other than the traditional requirement of a ‘personal stake in the outcome.’ ” Geraghty, supra, 445 U.S. at 404, 100 S.Ct. at 1212.
The precise qualities necessary for vigorous advocacy have yet to be spelled out by the Supreme Court. Nevertheless it appears to me that this appellant, who voluntarily settled his personal claims in toto, is in a far weaker position to provide such representation than was the appellant in Geraghty, whose claims had been mooted by circumstances beyond his control. I am unable to see how this appellant could possibly provide adequate, much less “vigorous,” representation of the claims of others when he has seen to it that his own have been satisfied.
I recognize the possibility, however, that others may have relied upon this appellant’s pursuit of the litigation. See Rothman v. Gould, 52 F.R.D. 494 (S.D.N.Y.1971) (passim), in which Judge Frankel discusses the need to protect class members who may have relied for presentation of their claims, on “class” litigation brought by a party who later desires to settle his individual claims.
I would not permit this appellant to pursue this litigation; I would instead remand for consideration of possible intervention by other members of the putative class.