The Eleventh Circuit relied on Twombly’s heightened pleading standard in affirming a dismissal for failure to state a RICO claim in Almanza v. United Airlines, 2017 WL 957191 (11th Cir. Mar. 13, 2017). The plaintiff Mexican nationals, representing a putative class, were charged a tourism tax by the defendant airlines as part of their airfare,…
Category: Class Actions
CAFA’s Local-Controversy Provision Can’t Trump Federal-Question Jurisdiction
The Eleventh Circuit reinstated a federal RICO case but approved the denial of a motion to remand it to state court under the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) in Blevins v. Aksut, No. 16-11585, 2017 WL 782288 (11th Cir. Mar. 1, 2017). The court’s opinion confirms that CAFA’s local-controversy provision, 28 U.S.C. § 1332(d)(4), does not strip…
Patronage Capital Class Action Removable; Dismissal Affirmed
An electric cooperative organized under state law is nonetheless entitled to remove a putative class action to federal court under the “federal officer” removal statute, according to the Eleventh Circuit in Caver v. Central Alabama Electric Cooperative, 845 F.3d 1135 (11th Cir. 2017), which also affirmed dismissal of a complaint seeking immediate return of patronage capital. Specifically,…
Employees May Join FLSA Collective Action With Rule 23 Class Action in Same Proceeding
The Eleventh Circuit has joined the D.C., Second, Third, Seventh, and Ninth Circuits in holding that employees may bring a collective action against their employer under § 216(b) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (“FLSA”) in the same proceeding in which they seek Rule 23(b) certification of state-law claims. Calderone v. Scott, 2016…
Civil RICO Class Action Dismissal Affirmed
A civil RICO class action challenging Spirit Airlines’ “Passenger Usage Fee” landed for a second time in the Eleventh Circuit and this time the airline fared better: the court affirmed the dismissal of the amended complaint in a major opinion on RICO pleading standards authored by Judge Stanley Marcus. Ray v. Spirit Airlines, Inc., 2016…
Ask Not for Whom the Securities Exchange Act’s Statute of Repose Tolls; It Doesn’t.
Is a statute of repose subject to tolling? Although its holding was limited to the applicability of American Pipe tolling, created by the commencement of a class action, to the five-year statute of repose under Section 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Eleventh Circuit discussed the issue in broad terms in its August 10…
Failure of Proof of Online Consumer Arbitration Agreement
Does an arbitration agreement included in a credit cardholder agreement cover claims made under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act arising from collection of resulting credit card debt? In the Eleventh Circuit’s July 5, 2016 decision in Bazemore v. Jefferson Capital Systems, LLC, 2016 WL 3608961, the district court had held that the collection claim,…
Class Certification of Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act Claim Affirmed
On May 17, the Eleventh Circuit decided Carriuolo v. General Motors Co., 2016 WL 2870025 (11th Cir. May 17, 2016), affirming the district court’s partial grant of a motion for class certification. The plaintiffs’ motion in the district court involved four classes relating to four claims, but the district court denied certification of three and only granted…
Waiver of the Right to Arbitrate Federal Claim Does Not Extend to Later-Asserted State-Law Claims
On April 21, the Eleventh Circuit decided Collado v. J. & G. Transport, Inc., 820 F.3d 1256 (11th Cir. 2016), holding that a defendant’s waiver through litigation of the right to arbitrate claims under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) did not extend to state-law claims asserted by a later amendment to the complaint. Enrique Collado,…
Class Certification Vacated for Lack of Predominance
The Eleventh Circuit handed Electrolux a major victory when it vacated the classes certified in Brown v. Electrolux Home Products, Inc., 817 F.3d 1225, a March 21, 2016 opinion authored by Judge William Pryor. The opinion was not an unqualified victory, however, since the court was unwilling to adopt key arguments made by Electrolux and…