Answering a question of first impression for the court, the Eleventh Circuit held in Daniels v. Select Portfolio Servicing, Inc., 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 14013 (11th Cir. May 24, 2022), that a mortgage statement submitted to a borrower may, under certain circumstances, constitute a communication in connection with a debt that is subject to the…
Author: Tom Byrne
“Local Controversy” CAFA Exception Not Established by Proof of Class Citizenship
An inartfully pleaded class definition coupled with a failure of proof was enough to prevent a class-action plaintiff from invoking the Class Action Fairness Act’s “local controversy” exception to avoid removal from the sheltering arms of a Florida circuit court, according to the Eleventh Circuit in Simring v. GreenSky, LLC, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 8002…
Full Court Nixes Appeal of Antitrust Immunity Ruling
Sitting en banc, the Eleventh Circuit unanimously held in SmileDirectClub, LLC v. Battle, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 21393 (11th Cir. July 20, 2021), that an interlocutory appeal may not be taken under the collateral order doctrine from the denial of the state-action antitrust immunity conferred by Parker v. Brown, 317 U.S. 341 (1943). The case…
STOLI Invalidation Upheld, Issues Certified to Delaware Supreme Court
STOLI – Stranger-Originated Life Insurance – was the subject of the court’s decision in Estate of Malkin v. Wells Fargo Bank, NA, 2021 Westlaw 2149344 (11th Cir. May 27, 2021). Judge Beverly Martin authored the court’s opinion, which affirmed a Florida district court’s invalidation of the life insurance policy at issue but certified questions relating…
Judge Beverly Martin to Resign on September 30, 2021
Judge Beverly Martin, an Obama appointee who also served as a judge in the Northern District of Georgia and as United States Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia, has notified the White House that she intends to resign as a judge on the Eleventh Circuit effective September 30, 2021. Judge Martin is regarded as…
FCRA Class Action Foiled by Comcast Arbitration Agreement
A Comcast arbitration agreement by which a former subscriber to the cable service agreed to arbitrate “any claim or controversy related to Comcast” was enforced by the court in Hearn v. Comcast Cable Communications, LLC, 992 F.3d 1209 (11th Cir. 2021), overturning a contrary decision by the Northern District of Georgia. The arbitration agreement was…
Derivative Jurisdiction Doctrine Does Not Apply to Personal Jurisdiction
In the category of legal doctrines that have outlived whatever usefulness that they once had falls the doctrine of “derivative jurisdiction”—that a federal district court must dismiss a removed case if the state court from which it was removed lacked subject-matter jurisdiction. The doctrine was repealed by statute for cases removed under the general removal…
Administrative Feasibility Not Separate Class Certification Requirement
The Eleventh Circuit aligned itself last week with the majority of circuits in holding that a threshold determination that identifying class members is administratively feasible is not a separate requirement for class certification. The ruling, in the closely-watched case of Cherry v. Dometic Corp., 2021 WL 346121 (11th Cir. Feb. 2, 2021), which attracted numerous…
No Heightened Duty Owed to Class Representatives by Class Counsel
Counsel for a proposed class do not owe the named class representatives a heightened fiduciary duty relative to other class members. So held the Eleventh Circuit in Medical & Chiropractic Clinic, Inc. v. Oppenheim, 981 F.3d 983 (11th Cir. 2020), a decision which marked the court’s return to an unseemly controversy stemming from litigation against…
Herbalife Top Distributors Lose Arbitration Bid
Top distributors of the sometimes controversial nutrition products marketer Herbalife lost their bid to compel arbitration of RICO and related claims made by lower-level distributors in Lavigne v. Herbalife, Ltd., 2020 WL 4342671 (11th Cir. July 29, 2020), which affirmed the order of a Florida district court. The top distributors, alleged to be part of…