Abante Rooter and Plumbing, Inc. v. Total Merchant Services, LLC

Opinion

1 2 3 6 7 ABANTE ROOTER AND PLUMBING, Case No. 19-cv-05711-EMC INC., 8 Plaintiff, ORDER REQUESTING INFORMATON v. 10 Docket No. 87 TOTAL MERCHANT SERVICES, LLC, 11 Defendant. 12 13 14 15 Before the Court will approve the parties’ Notice of Voluntary Dismissal of Action With 16 Prejudice as to Plaintiff and Without Prejudice as to the Putative Class, Docket No. 87, the Court 17 requests information from the parties about the scope and nature of the publicity associated with 18 this putative class action. As Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(e) compels: “A class action 19 shall not be dismissed or compromised without the approval of the court, and notice of the 20 proposed dismissal or compromise shall be given to all members of the class in such manner as the 21 court directs.” This requirement “is to protect the interests of absent plaintiffs before permitting 22 dismissal.” Schultzen v. Woodbury Cent. Cmty. Sch. Dist., 217 F.R.D. 469, 470 (N.D. Iowa 2003). 23 Although “the class has not been certified . . . ‘[t]his requirement [to act as the guardian of the 24 rights of class members still] applies.’” Id. (citing Diaz v. Trust Territory of Pacific Islands, 876 25 F.2d 1401, 1407 (9th Cir. 1989)); see also Tombline v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., No. 13-CV- 26 04567-JD, 2014 WL 5140048, at *2 (N.D. Cal. Oct. 10, 2014) (noting that “this Court will follow 27 Diaz” to evaluate the proposed dismissal as “this approach is consistent with Rule 23(e) as it exists 1 safeguarded, and to safeguard against any misplaced reliance on this suit and any consequential 2 tolling of the statute of limitations, the parties shall file by August 20, 2021, a description of the 3 scope of publicity and nature of the information shared with the public and putative class members 4 about this case. 5 7 8 Dated: August 13, 2021 9 10 ______________________________________ EDWARD M. CHEN 11 United States District Judge 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27