Oops. Wrong Party Sues.
What happens to a class certification order when the named plaintiffs lack standing to bring their claims? As demonstrated in Ell-Cap/Diversified 75 Naples Estates v. Naples Estates Homeowners Ass'n, 975 So. 2d 577 (Fla. 2d DCA 2008), it gets vacated.
The trial court certified a class of mobile home owners alleging that the owner of the park in which they lived improperly sold the park to a third party without giving the owners a contracted-for right of first refusal. On appeal, the Second District held that the contract gave the right of first refusal to the mobile home owners' association, not the individual homeowners themselves. Thus, the homeowners lacked standing to bring their class claims, requiring reversal of the class certification order.
Interestingly, the court was not reticent to delve into the merits of the contract dispute in order to determine the standing issue. Although not noted in this opinion, other Florida cases make clear that standing issues should be adjudicated before class certification.