Class Action

Federal developments of interest: Philip Morris USA Inc. v. Scott; Sullivan v. DB Investments, Inc.

By Kimberly A. Kralowec

On Friday, September 24, 2010, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia entered an order staying enforcement of a $240 million judgment entered in Louisiana state court in a class action against the tobacco industry.  The order states that the Supreme Court is likely to grant the anticipated petition for a writ of certiorari to review the defendants' federal due process arguments, which appear to attack many aspects of class procedure.  Philip Morris USA Inc. et al. v. Scott, no. 10A273.  See this post at SCOTUSblog for a more detailed discussion of the order.  SCOTUSblog also has links to the stay application (a large file), the opposition, and the reply.

A month ago today, the Third Circuit granted en banc rehearing in Sullivan v. DB Investments, Inc., 613 F.3d 134 (3d Cir. 2010), the class action settlement case discussed in this blog post.  See Sullivan v. DB Investments, Inc., ___ F.3d ___, 2010 WL 3374167 (3rd Cir. Aug 27, 2010) (granting rehearing and vacating the panel opinion).  Sullivan is an antitrust class action for price-fixing in the diamond industry. 

In Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes, no. 10-277, the response to the cert. petition will be due on October 25, 2010, according to the docket.  Both sides have submitted consents to the filing of amicus briefs, and three amicus briefs supporting Wal-Mart have been filed so far. 

Full post as published by The UCL Practitioner on September 27, 2010 (boomark / email).