October 16, 2009 9:52 AM | Posted by Driskell, Fentrice | Middle District of Florida
No. The Private Securities Litigation Fraud Act, which provides for the stay of all discovery and other proceedings during the pendency of a motion to dismiss, does not apply to actions in which plaintiffs allege only state law claims.
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October 16, 2009 9:51 AM | Posted by Driskell, Fentrice | Middle District of Florida
No. In Nicholas v. DWS Investments Distributors, Inc., No. 6:09-cv-565-Orl-31DAB, 2009 WL 1444419 (M.D. Fla. May 21, 2009), the plaintiffs attempted to bring a class action based on the ground that a defendant investment distributor repeatedly paid accounts of deceased persons to those not entitled to payment. The court ruled that despite the plaintiffs’ contention as to why they were entitled to class relief, the plaintiffs failed to plead facts sufficient to comply with the requirements of Rule 23. The court dismissed the plaintiffs’ class action claim on those grounds, but granted plaintiffs leave to amend.
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October 15, 2009 9:16 AM | Posted by Driskell, Fentrice | Middle District of Florida
In Crawley v. Paskert-Johnson Co., No. 8:07-cv-1789-T-23TGW, 2008 WL 4793650 (M.D. Fla. Nov. 3, 2008), the Court ruled that pro se plaintiffs cannot adequately represent a class.
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March 17, 2009 5:00 PM | Posted by Driskell, Fentrice | Middle District of Florida
Yes, according to the Court in Ault v. Walt Disney World Co., 254 F.R.D. 680 (M.D. Fla. 2009). The Court ultimately approved the settlement class, but only after conducting a thorough evaluation of the requirements of Rule 23(a) and 23(b)(2).
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March 17, 2009 5:00 PM | Posted by Driskell, Fentrice | Middle District of Florida
In Butler-Jones v. Sterling Casino Lines, L.P., No. 6:08-CV-01196-Orl-35DAB, 2008 WL 5274384, at *3 (M.D. Fla. Dec. 18, 2008), the plaintiffs’ failure to limit the proposed class definition to individuals who were terminated as opposed to merely affected by an apparent plant closure precluded class certification.
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October 24, 2008 10:30 PM | Posted by Fentrice Driskell | Middle District of Florida
Yes, according to the court in Drury v. Countrywide Home Loans, Inc., No. 6:08-cv-152-Orl-28DAB, 2008 WL 4642381 (M.D. Fla. Oct. 17, 2008). By analyzing the amount each plaintiff would have been charged per wrongfully-placed insurance policy and the likely, though imprecise, number of plaintiffs who would have incurred such charges, the court was able to deduce that the total amount of damages “likely exceeded” the jurisdictional amount.
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September 28, 2008 4:58 PM | Posted by Dean Morande | Middle District of Florida
Yes, but the responding party does not have to supply an answer because, according to the Middle District of Florida, such a request improperly calls for speculation. Rebman v. Follett Higher Education Group, Inc., No. 06-1476, 2008 WL 3928793 (M.D. Fla. Aug. 26, 2008).
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August 28, 2008 1:28 PM | Posted by Fentrice Driskell | Middle District of Florida
No, according to a recent decision granting a motion for class certification where class members potentially would recover only $3.20 per individual.
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June 6, 2008 11:39 AM | Posted by Fentrice Driskell | Middle District of Florida
In Stahl v. Mastec, Inc., No. 8:05-cv-1265-T-27TGW, 2008 WL 2267469 (M.D. Fla. May 20, 2008), class counsel sought an award of attorneys’ fees, costs, and expenses equal to 28.8% of the gross settlement amount of $13,137,365.00.
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April 11, 2008 10:52 AM | Posted by Fentrice Driskell | Middle District of Florida
In Winn-Dixie Stores, Inc. Erisa Litigation, Nos. 3:04-cv-194-J-33MCR, 3:04-cv-308-J-33HTS, 3:04-cv-195-J-33JRK, 2008 WL 815724 (M.D. Fla. Mar. 20, 2008), the Court recently gave final approval to a settlement and a settlement class seeking damages for breach of fiduciary duty claims brought under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA).
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March 21, 2008 5:29 PM | Posted by Fentrice Driskell | Middle District of Florida
In a recent ruling in a securities class action case, Eastwood Enterprises, LLC v. Farha, Nos. 8:07-cv-1940-T-24 MSS and 8:07-cv-1993-T-24 TBM, 2008 WL 687351 (M.D. Fla. Mar. 11, 2008), the court determined that a consortium of five sophisticated institutional investors could serve as lead plaintiff. The court’s ruling came over the objections from other plaintiffs that the consortium formed solely to aggregate their losses and attain lead plaintiff status.
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March 21, 2008 4:45 PM | Posted by Fentrice Driskell | Middle District of Florida
Yes, according to the court in Rebman v. Follet Higher Education Group, Inc., No. 6:06-cv-1476-Orl-28KRS, 2008 WL 508156 (M.D. Fla. Feb. 21, 2008).
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February 1, 2008 5:00 PM | Posted by Fentrice Driskell | Middle District of Florida
No, provided that the agreement affords the party seeking to avoid arbitration an opportunity to reject the terms and opt out of the agreement.
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January 8, 2008 11:56 AM | Posted by Fentrice Driskell | Middle District of Florida
In Horton v. Metro. Life Ins. Co., 2007 WL 4557293 (M.D. Fla. Dec. 21, 2007), an individual, Jesus Fuentes, believed that he was a member of a plaintiff class to a class action that had been settled and upon which a final judgment dismissing with prejudice the claims of the class and discharging the defendant from any related claim by any member of the class had been entered. The court denied Mr. Fuentes’s motion as having been brought in the wrong court and the wrong lawsuit.
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October 18, 2007 12:00 AM | Posted by Fentrice Driskell | Middle District of Florida
In Kuehn v. Cadle Co., Inc., the court said no and instead concluded that the plaintiff must put forth evidence or a "reasonable estimate" of the size of the purported class. 2007 WL 809657, at *3 (M.D. Fla. Mar. 15, 2007).
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October 3, 2007 3:07 PM | Posted by Robert Ciotti | Alabama District Courts, Alabama State Courts, Analysis, Arbitration, Eleventh Circuit, Florida State Courts, Georgia District Courts, Georgia State Courts, Insurance, Middle District of Florida, News, Northern District of Florida, Southern District of Florida
Can differing state laws on the conscionability of class action waivers in arbitration defeat class certification of nationwide classes?
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October 2, 2007 11:23 PM | Posted by Fentrice Driskell | Middle District of Florida
According to Bragg v. Bill Heard Chevrolet, Inc.-Plant City, the Court may approve a class action settlement when it is “‘fair, reasonable and adequate’ and not the product of collusion between the parties.” 2007 WL 2781105, at *2 (M.D. Fla. Aug. 28, 2007) (citing Strube v. American Equity, Investment Life Ins. Co., 158 Fed. Appx. 198, 201 (11th Cir. 2005)).
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September 23, 2007 7:39 PM | Posted by Fentrice Driskell | Middle District of Florida
In Grillasca v. Amerada Hess Corp., 2007 WL 2702334, at *1 (M.D. Fla. Sept. 14, 2007), the court declined to reconsider its denial of class certification, but acknowledged that its previous dismissal of the plaintiffs’ complaint should have been without prejudice.
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September 20, 2007 8:40 AM | Posted by D. Matthew Allen | Middle District of Florida
In one of a string of class actions filed against Florida automobile dealers related to the sale of an "etch" aftermarket product, a Middle District of Florida judge approved a classwide settlement of a class action against Crown Auto.
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August 14, 2007 6:43 PM | Posted by Fentrice Driskell | Middle District of Florida
In Jones v. TT of Longwood, Inc., 2007 WL 2298020 (M.D. Fla. Aug. 7, 2007), the Court said yes.
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August 11, 2007 4:26 PM | Posted by Dean Morande | Middle District of Florida
Can a proposed class have enough members to make joinder impractical, yet the numerosity requirement remains unsatisfied? That is exactly what happened in this Middle District of Florida decision.
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May 11, 2007 2:59 PM | Posted by Dean Morande | Middle District of Florida
What is the numerosity threshold for the certification of a collective action under the Fair Labor Standards Act? Not twelve.
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May 8, 2007 9:13 AM | Posted by Dean Morande | Middle District of Florida
The court in this Middle District of Florida decision made clear that discovery at the pre-certification stage is limited to issues bearing on the class certification decision--discovery aimed at merits or damages issues is not permitted.
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May 7, 2007 10:51 AM | Posted by Dean Morande | Middle District of Florida
The Middle District of Florida reenforced the principle that, no matter how it's pleaded, a claim that is actually based on fraudulent conduct is not suitable for class treatment.
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January 19, 2007 11:51 PM | Posted by Dean Morande | Middle District of Florida
In this securities class action case under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (PSLRA), five groups of plaintiffs filed competing motions for the appointment of lead plaintiff and for approval of their selection of counsel, but the plaintiff with the largest financial stake prevailed. Edward J. Goodman Life Income Trust v. Jabil Circuit, Inc., No. 8:06-CV-1716-T-23EAJ, 2007 WL 170556 (M.D. Fla. Jan. 18, 2007).
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