Augustin v. City of Philadelphia

318 F.R.D. 292, 2016 WL 7014178, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 166019
Procedural entryThis page is a short order in Augustin v. City of Philadelphia. Read the opinion of the Court — 171 F. Supp. 3d 404
District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania·Decided December 1, 2016·No. CIVIL ACTION NO. 14-CV-4238·Published

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

JOYNER, DISTRICT JUDGE

This § 1983 action is once again before this Court on Motion of the Plaintiffs to certify this matter as a class action pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 23. Specifically, Plaintiffs move to certify a class of Philadelphia landlords whose properties have been or will be liened by the Philadelphia Gas Works for unpaid gas services incurred by delinquent tenants. For the reasons stated below, the motion shall be granted.

History of the Case

This action was commenced in July 2014 by two married couples, Lea and Gerard Augustin and Thomas and Donna MeSorley, who own and lease residential real estate in the City of Philadelphia and one commercial landlord, Richmond Waterfront Industrial Park, LLC, all of whom suffered the imposition of gas liens placed against their properties by the Philadelphia Gas Works (“PGW”) to recover for the unpaid gas accounts of their tenants. In bringing this lawsuit, Plaintiffs sought to challenge the constitutionality of the methods and procedures by which PGW liened their properties, arguing that the City’s procedures did not afford them either adequate notice or an opportunity to be heard with respect to what they averred was a taking of their property interests. The parties were given some nine months to take discovery following which they both filed motions for summary judgment; Defendant’s motion was denied but Plaintiffs’ motion for partial summary judgment was granted in our Memorandum and Order entered on March 17, 2016. In that decision, we determined that PGWs procedures for liening property was, based upon the evidence in the record then before us, constitutionally inadequate in the case of non-customer landlords because it constitutes an unlawful taking of [297]*297property without due process of law. We directed that the parties submit a proposed schedule for the filing of briefs and the conduct of further proceedings regarding the fashioning of an appropriate remedy.

Thereafter, Plaintiffs filed an Amended Motion for Interim Injunctive Relief and a hearing was held on that amended motion on May 3, 2016. The following day, we issued an Order granting that Motion and immediately preliminarily enjoining the City and PGW “from filing any liens on real property to enforce unpaid charges for natural gas service, where such service, according to PGWs records, was provided to a residential or commercial customer other than the owner of the property targeted for the lien[,]” and “from collecting or attempting to collect any Covered Liens from the proceeds of any sale or refinancing transaction involving a property owned by a person other than the underlying customer of record”. Additional hearings on the instant motion for class certification and motion for permanent injunctive relief were held on July 26 and 27, 2016 and the matters are now ripe for determination. We address only the motion for class certification in this Memorandum; the motion for permanent injunction shall be discussed in a separate opinion.

Standards Governing Class Certification Motions

“The class action is ‘an exception to the usual rule that litigation is conducted by and on behalf of the individual named parties only.’ ” Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes, 664 U.S. 338, 348, 131 S.Ct. 2541, 2550, 180 L.Ed.2d 374, 388-389 (2011) (quoting Califano v. Yamasaki, 442 U.S. 682, 700-701, 99 S.Ct. 2545, 61 L.Ed.2d 176 (1979)); Reyes v. Netdeposit, LLC, 802 F.3d 469, 482 (3d Cir. 2015). “In order to justify a departure from that rule, ‘a class representative must be part of the class and possess the same interest and suffer the same injury’ as the class members.” Id.(quoting East Texas Motor Freight System, Inc. v. Rodriguez, 431 U.S. 395, 403, 97 S.Ct. 1891, 52 L.Ed.2d 453 (1977)). The class action vehicle is outlined in Fed. R. Civ. P. 23, subsection (a) of which sets forth four threshold requirements for certification and reads as follows:

(a) Prerequisites. One or more members of a class may sue or be sued as representative parties on behalf of all members only if:
(1) the class is so numerous that joinder of all members is impracticable;
(2) there are questions of law or fact common to the class;
(3) the claims or defenses of the representative parties are typical of the claims or defenses of the class; and
(4) the representative parties will fairly and adequately protect the interests of the class.

“The requirements set out in Rule 23 are not mere pleading rules.” Marcus v. BMW of North America, 687 F.3d 583, 591 (3d Cir. 2012). Indeed, “[t]he parties seeking class certification bear the burden of establishing by a preponderance of the evidence that the requirements of Rule 23(a) have been met.” In re NFL Concussion Injury Litigation, 821 F.3d 410, 426 (3d Cir. 2016)(quoting In re Community Bank of Northern Virginia Mortgage Lending Practices Litigation, 795 F.3d 380, 391 (3d Cir. 2015)). “Actual, not presumed, conformance with the Rule 23 requirements is essential.” In re Hydrogen Peroxide Antitrust Litigation, 552 F.3d 305, 326 (3d Cir. 2008). In determining whether there is actual conformance with Rule 23, a district court must conduct a rigorous analysis of the evidence and arguments advanced and must resolve all factual or legal disputes relevant to class certification, even if they overlap with the merits; this includes disputes touching on elements of the cause of action. Marcus, supra; Hydrogen Peroxide, 552 F.3d at 307, 316. Once the prerequisites of Rule 23(a) are found to have been satisfied, the courts next consider whether the class meets the requirements of one of three categories of class actions in Rule 23(b). NFL Concussion Litigation, supra.

Under Rule 23(b),

A class action may be maintained if Rule 23(a) is satisfied and if:
[298]*298(1) prosecuting separate actions by or against individual class members would create a risk of:
(A) inconsistent or varying adjudications with respect to individual class members that would establish incompatible standards of conduct for the party opposing the class; or
(B) adjudications with respect to individual class members that, as a practical matter, would be dispositive of the interests of the other members not parties to the individual adjudications or would substantially impair or impede them ability to protect their interests;
(2) the party opposing the class has acted or refused to act on grounds that apply generally to the class, so that final injunc-tive relief or corresponding declaratory relief is appropriate respecting the class as a whole; or

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Augustin v. City of Philadelphia, 318 F.R.D. 292, 2016 WL 7014178, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 166019 (E.D. Pa. 2016).

318 F.R.D. 292 (Augustin v. City of Philadelphia) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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