Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.
Supreme Court Considers New Limits on Class Action Lawsuits
By Matt O’Donnell
Two long-running class action lawsuit disputes appear to have divided the U.S. Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments on Monday attempting to dismiss the cases and make it harder for customers or investors to join together and sue them. Both cases are testing standards for determining whether lawsuits can proceed on a group basis before certain evidence is presented.
Biotech company Amgen, Inc. and cable provider Comcast Corp. are attempting to have the cases thrown out following the court’s 2011 decision in Wal-Mart Stores v. Dukes, which dismissed an enormous gender-bias class action lawsuit against the retail chain because the proposed class was too large and raised too many different claims. Monday’s arguments gave the Supreme Court a new opportunity to further limit class action lawsuits as it considers appeals by Comcast and Amgen that could help determine what kind of evidence must be presented before companies can be sued in a class action lawsuit.
Comcast is facing an $875 million class action antitrust lawsuit accusing the provider of monopolizing the Philadelphia market by swapping territories and subscribers with its competitors to ensure it could control the market and charge higher prices.
Amgen is fighting securities fraud claims that it misled investors for more than three years about the safety and effectiveness of its anemia drugs Aranesp and Epogen.
Amgen is appealing an earlier federal appeals court ruling that said investors could wait until trial to prove “materiality,” or that the alleged misleading information affected the company’s stock price.
Comcast is arguing that a federal judge improperly certified its case as a class action lawsuit without first resolving whether plaintiffs as a group could show proof of damages.
The justices appeared divided on the arguments, with some in favor of making plaintiffs prove material information or damages at an earlier stage while others argued it would subject plaintiffs to an even “higher burden” of proof than they have to show at trial. In explaining the reason for demanding more proof at earlier stages, Justice Antonin Scalia said the mere certification of a class action can place “enormous pressure” on defendants to settle rather than incur the major legal costs of fighting the case.
Both cases should be resolved by June, and will have wide-reaching impact on future class action lawsuit cases.
The cases are Comcast v. Behrend (Case No. 11-864), and Amgen v. Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds (Case No. 11-1085).
Updated November 7th, 2012
All class action and lawsuit news updates are listed in the Lawsuit News section of Top Class Actions
Top Class Actions Legal Statement
