SYLLABUS
21-71801
AGGREGATE LITIGATION
YALE LAW SCHOOL, SPRING 2024
Fridays 10:10 a.m. – Noon
Elizabeth Cabraser
Office: Room 436
Office Hours: After class on Fridays or remotely by appointment.
Best contacts:
415 806-2100 (mobile)
ecabraser@lchb.com
OUR APRIL 12 CLASS WILL BE BY ZOOM
Topic: Aggregate Litigation: LAW 21718 01 (SP24)
Time: Apr 12, 2024 10:00 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android: https://yale.zoom.us/j/99114141154?pwd=VmpCZ2FhV09JdGRFREJ3V0p5OTBLdz09
Password: yls
Or Telephone：203-432-9666 (2-ZOOM if on-campus) or 646 568 7788
One Tap Mobile: +12034329666,,99114141154# US (Bridgeport)
Meeting ID: 991 1414 1154
International numbers available: https://yale.zoom.us/u/arhnv0nAb
For H.323 and SIP information for video conferencing units please click here: https://yale.service-now.com/it?id=support_article&sys_id=434b72d3db9e8fc83514b1c0ef961924
PLEASE NOTE:
Links to all course materials will be posted, and all course announcements will be made on this website. Please check it often. Our contemporary MDL case study is In re JUUL Labs, Inc. Marketing, Sales Practices, and Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2913.
The JUUL Orders, pleadings and transcripts are posted at juulmdllitigation.com
Access username: juulmdl
Password: sunshine
THIS JUST IN:
The Seventh Circuit speaks on preclusion (nonmutual defensive collateral estoppel) – a counterpoint to the 6th Circuit’s DuPont nonmutual offensive collateral estoppel decision.
WARNING: Jurisprudence happens. Readings [will!] change to reflect new developments and popular demand.
| CLASS | TOPIC | ASSIGNMENT |
|---|---|---|
| January 19, 2024 | Course Introduction and Overview: Whether, When, and Why to Aggregate? How, and how well, do available centralized adjudication procedures (class actions, joinder and consolidation, multidistrict litigation, mass torts) balance and reconcile the often competing interests of the parties, the courts, and society in autonomy, protection, access, fairness, efficiency, economy, innovation, predictability, finality, and resolution in a mass market economy? | Visit the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation website: www.jpml.uscourts.gov; In re Uber Technologies, Inc., Passenger sexual Assault Litigation, MDL No.2084, Supplemental Order (01/04/2024); review Fed. R. Civ. P. 1, 23, 42; Introducing our Recent/Contemporary MDL case study: In re Juul Labs, Inc. Marketing, Sales Practices, and Product liability Litigation, MDL No. 2913; Draft, Fed. R. Civ. P. 16.1:Proposed Case Management Rule for MDLs |
| January 26, 2024 | Prelude to contemporary aggregate litigation: the rise of Asbestos Litigation, “the Mother of All Mass Torts”; and judicial recognition of class actions as “an effective and inclusive group remedy” for the non-wealthy, the unsophisticated, and those with small claims. | Mass Tort Class Actions: Going, Going, Gone? (Williams, J.); Jenkins v. Raymark, 782 F.2d 468 (5th Cir. 1986); In re Asbestos Prod. Liab. Litig. (No. VI), 771 F. Supp. 415 (J.P.M.L. 1991); Vasquez v. Superior Court, 4 Cal.3d 800 (Cal. 1971); Phillips Petroleum Co. v. Shutts, 472 U.S. 797 (1986) |
| February 2, 2024 | Centralized/Unitary v. Dispersed/Multiple Adjudication: the quest for preclusion vs. risk aversion | In re Bridgestone/Firestone, Inc. Tires Prods. Liability Litigation, 288 F.3d 1012 (7th Cir. 2001); Butler v. Sears Roebuck & Co., 702 F.3d 359 (7th Cir. 2012); 727 F.3d 796 (7th Cir. 2013); In re E. I. DuPont DeNemours & Co. C-8 Personal Injury Litigation, 54 F. 4th 912 (6th Cir., 2022), cert. denied, 144 S. Ct. 16 (2023) (Thomas, J., dissenting). |
| February 9, 2024 | The Class Action Classics: Due Process, Common Questions, and Classwide Proof | Amchem Prods. Inc. v. Windsor, 521 U.S. 591 (1997); Ortiz v. Fiberboard, 527 U.S. 815 (1999); Wal-Mart v. Dukes, 564 U.S. 338 (2011); Amgen Inc. v. Connecticut Retirement Plans & Trust Fund, 567 U.S. 905 (2012). |
| February 16, 2024 | Evolving and Diverging Judicial Attitudes Toward Aggregation, Commonality, and Access. Plus: the Third Circuit trips up the “Texas Two Step“ and articulates a good faith/financial distress requirement for aggregation in bankruptcy. | Suchanek v. Sturm Foods, 764 F.3d 750 (7th Cir. 2014); McReynolds v. Merrill Lynch, 672 F.3d 482 (2012) (Judge Posner’s answer to Wal-Mart); AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion, 563 U.S. 333 (2011); In re LTL Management, LLC, 64 F.4th 84 (Third Circuit 1/30/23). |
| February 23, 2024 | Aggregation in the Cause of Preclusion: The Binding Adjudication of “Questions With Common Answers”under Rule 23(b)(2) and 23(c)(4) | In re Nassau County Strip Search Litigation, 461 F.3d 219 (2d Cir. 2006); Engle v. Liggett Group, Inc., 945 So. 2d 1246 (Fla. 2006); Walker v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., 734 F.3d 1279 (11th Cir. 2013); Martin v. Behr Dayton Thermal Products LLC, 896 F.3d 405 (6th Cir. 2018). |
| March 1, 2024 | The MDL Effect: Non-Class Aggregation, "Hybrid" MDLs, and the Modern Mass Tort | David L. Noll, “What Do MDL Leaders Do?” 124 Lewis & Clark L. Rev. 433 (2020); Jaime Dodge, “Wrangling the Beast: Creating New Standards and Best Practices for MDLs”, 99 Judicature 32 (Autumn 2015); Looper v. Cook Inc., 20 F.4th 387, (7th Cir. 2021). |
| March 8, 2024 | Who prosecutes aggregate litigation: Leadership structures and judicial selection, the common benefit doctrine | JUUL Case Management Orders: Order Appointing Leadership and Steering Committee Members; Amended Case Management Order No. 5; Case Management Order No. 5(A); In Re Fox Corp. Derivative Litigation, ___ A.3d ___, 2023 WL 901579 (Del. Chancery Ct.); In re Bard IVC Filters Products Liability Litigation, 81 F.4th 897 (9th Cir. 2023). |
| March 15, 2024 | Let’s Make a (Class or Mass) Deal?: Issues, Critiques and Prescriptions for Aggregate Resolutions; Guest Speaker Hon. Ana Reyes | Cabraser & Issacharoff, “The Participatory Class Action,” 92 NYU L. Rev. 846 (2017); Bruce Hay & David Rosenberg, In re Syngenta AG MIR Corn Litigation (10th Cir. 2/28/23); Resnik, “Reorienting the Process Due: Using Jurisdiction to Forge Post-Settlement Relationships Among Litigants, Courts and the Public in Class and Other Aggregate Litigation”, 92 NYU L. Rev. 1017 (2017); "And Now a Word from the Panel: Doing the MDL Math," Law360, March 30, 2022; NY Times, "Merck Agrees to Settle Vioxx Suits for $4.85 Billion," November 9, 2007; NY Times, "In Vioxx Settlement, Testing a Legal Ideal: A Lawyer's Loyalty," January 22, 2008. |
| March 29, 2024 | Aggregate Civil Rights/Human Rights Litigation: Is the Past Prologue? | In re Marcos Human Rights Litigation, 910 F. Supp. 1460 (D. Hawaii 1995); 103 F.3d 767 (9th Cir. 1996) (2 decisions); 2020 CARES Act Prison Cases, class certification, preliminary injunction, and summary judgment decisions (to be supplied); Scholl v. Mnuchin, 2020 WL 5702129 (N.D. Cal. 09/24/2020) and 2020 WL 6065059 (N. D. Cal. 10/14/2020). Link to share file for sample of previous Aggregate Litigation class papers. "What the JPML Heard on 3/28/24" |
| April 5, 2024 | Class Action Settlements After Amchem/Ortiz, Part I | Coffee, “Class Action Accountability: Reconciling Exit, Voice and Loyalty in Representative Litigation,” 100 Colum. L. Rev. 370 (March 2000); In re Diet Drugs, 282 F.3d 220 (3d Cir. 2002); In re Deepwater Horizon, 739 F.3D 790 (5th Cir. 2014) and In re Deepwater Horizon, 753 F.3d 509 (5th Cir 2014) (note: 2 separate opinions). |
| April 12, 2024 | Class Action Settlements After Amchem/Ortiz, Part II: Emerging Issues and a New Settlement Rule | Advisory Committee Notes, 2018 amendments to Fed. R. Civ. P. 23(e); In re Volkswagen “Clean Diesels” Marketing Sales Practices, and Products Liability Litigation, 895 F.3d 597 (9th Cir. 2018); In re Hyundai and Kia Fuel Economy Litigation, 926 F.3d 539 (9th Cir. 2019) (en banc); Kim v. Allison (Tinder, Inc.), 87 F.4th 994 (9th Cir. 2023); Rule 16.1: Final Version |
| April 19, 2024 | Naming and Claiming: Current Issues in Aggregate Litigation: Ascertainability and Standing | TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez,141 S.Ct. 2190 (2021); In re Google Street View Electronic Communication Litigation (MDL 2184), 21 F.4th 1102 (9th Cir. 2021), cert. denied sub nom. Lowery v. Joffe, 143 S.Ct. 107 (2022); Chavez v. Plan Benefit Services, 77 F.4th 370 (5th Cir. 2023); Emanuel Displaced Persons Ass’n v. City of Portland, 223 WL 8292606 |