Coco v. Incorporated Village of Belle Terre

233 F.R.D. 109, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 29550, 2005 WL 3146863
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. New York
DecidedNovember 26, 2005
Docket01-cv-5061 (ADS)(ARL)
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 233 F.R.D. 109 (Coco v. Incorporated Village of Belle Terre) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Coco v. Incorporated Village of Belle Terre, 233 F.R.D. 109, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 29550, 2005 WL 3146863 (E.D.N.Y. 2005).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OF DECISION AND ORDER

SPATT, District Judge.

This case arises out of claims by the plaintiff Robert M. Coco, Jr., (“Coco” or the “Plaintiff’), individually and on behalf of a class of similarly situated persons, that the defendants the Village of Belle Terre (“Belle Terre” or the “Village”) and several of its present and former officials and employees (collectively, the “defendants”) created a scheme under which they, under color of law, purported to enforce traffic and other laws and collect purported fines for alleged violations of those laws through a distinct enterprise in violation of, among other things, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1961 et seq., (“RICO”) and 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (“Section 1983”).

With the exception of names, dates, and several factual details, the allegations in the third amended complaint in this case are virtually identical to the facts alleged in two other cases, Wood v. Incorporated Village of Patchogue, No. 01 Civ. 0229, and Brewer v. Hall, No. 00 Civ. 6072, also purported class action lawsuits filed by the plaintiffs counsel in this Court. Familiarity with the facts, allegations, and procedural histories of this ease and its companions is presumed.

Presently before the Court is the plaintiffs motion, by order to show cause, for class certification pursuant to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (“Fed. R. Civ.P.”) 23. The defendants have opposed the plaintiffs motion, arguing that the plaintiff has failed to satisfy the requirements for class certification.

I. DISCUSSION

A. The Prerequisites to a Class Action

It is well-settled that the movant bears the burden of showing that he satisfies the four prerequisites for a class action set forth in Rule 23(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which provides as follows:

One or more members of a class may sue or be sued as representative parties on behalf of all 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.

Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(a).

In assessing the instant motion, the Court must accept as true the substantive allegations in the complaint and may not conduct even a preliminary inquiry into the merits of the case. See Caridad v. Metro-North Commuter R.R., 191 F.3d 283, 291 (2d Cir.1999). On the other hand, the Court must rigorously analyze for compliance with the conditions of Rule 23(a). Id. The Court will evaluate the four prerequisites under Rule 23(a), which are often referred to as numerosity, commonality, typicality, and adequacy.

1. Numerosity

To show that a class is “so numerous that joinder of the all members is impracticable,” the movant is not required to prove that joinder is impossible. Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(a); see also Robidoux v. Celani, 987 F.2d 931, 935 (2d Cir.1993). Also, the movant does not need to show the exact class size or its identity. Robidoux, 987 F.2d at 935. Rather, numerosity hinges on the “examination of the specific facts of each ease and imposes no absolute limitations.” General Tel. Co. of the Northwest, Inc. v. E.E.O.C., 446 U.S. 318, 330, 100 S.Ct. 1698, 64 L.Ed.2d 319 (1980).

In the first instance, there is a presumption that joinder is impracticable when forty or more class members exist. [114]*114Robidoux, 987 F.2d at 936. Nevertheless, a movant may not speculate on the number of class members but rather must provide “some evidence of or reasonably estimate the number of class members.” LeGrand v. New York City Transit Auth., No. 95-0333, 1999 WL 342286, at *3 (E.D.N.Y. May 26, 1999) (internal quotation marks and citations omitted). Other relevant factors in this regard include: (1) the judicial economy that will stem from avoiding multiple actions; (2) the geographic dispersion of members of the proposed class; (3) the financial resources of those members; (4) the ability of the members to file individual suits; and (5) requests for prospective injunctive relief that may have an effect on future class members. Robidoux, 987 F.2d at 936 (citing 1 Herbert B. Newberg, Newberg on Class Actions: A Manual for Group Litigation at Federal and State Levels (“Newberg”) § 3.05, at 143 (2d ed.1985)).

The plaintiff alleges in this case that the class contains at least 800 persons. Allegedly, Village Court records identify those persons who have been defendants in the Village Court and will bear this estimate out. The defendant disputes this argument, arguing that because some Village Court defendants would not properly be members of any legitimate class, the “proposed number of the class members is far less than the 800 propounded by Coco.” The Court does not believe the defendants’ argument is sufficient to warrant denial of class certification. Surely it is possible that the actual number class members will be revealed to be less than the 800 proposed by the plaintiff. However, even if this number were substantially reduced, it still would likely far exceed the number generally considered sufficient to satisfy the numerosity requirement. Accordingly, the plaintiffs proposed class meets the Rule 23(a) element of numerosity.

2. Commonality

The commonality requirement is met if the movant’s and the class members’ grievances share common questions of law or fact. Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(a); Marisol A. v. Giuliani, 126 F.3d 372, 376 (2d Cir.1997). “Commonality does not mandate that all class members make identical claims and arguments, only that common issues of fact or law affect all class members.” Trief v. Dun & Bradstreet Corp., 144 F.R.D. 193, 198 (S.D.N.Y.1992). “The critical inquiry is whether the common questions are at the ‘core’ of the cause of action alleged.” D'Alauro v. GC Servs. Ltd. P’ship, 168 F.R.D. 451, 456 (E.D.N.Y.1996) (citation omitted). That some factual differences between class members may exist does not defeat the commonality requirement. See Krueger v. New York Telephone Co., 163 F.R.D. 433, 439 (S.D.N.Y.1995).

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233 F.R.D. 109, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 29550, 2005 WL 3146863, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/coco-v-incorporated-village-of-belle-terre-nyed-2005.