In re Asbestos School Litigation

107 F.R.D. 215, 2 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 1316, 1985 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21313
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedMarch 28, 1985
DocketMaster File No. 83-0268
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 107 F.R.D. 215 (In re Asbestos School Litigation) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Asbestos School Litigation, 107 F.R.D. 215, 2 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 1316, 1985 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21313 (E.D. Pa. 1985).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

JAMES McGIRR KELLY, District Judge.

Presently before this court are certain defendants’1 (defendants) motions for amendment of the September 28, 1984 Order (Order No. 20). Defendants seek an amendment to include certification of the order for interlocutory appeal pursuant to Title 28 U.S.C. § 1292(b) which states in pertinent part:

When a district judge, in making in a civil action an order not otherwise appealable under this section, shall be of the opinion that such order involves a controlling question of law as to which there is substantial ground for difference of opinion and that an immediate appeal from the order may materially advance the ultimate termination of the litigation, he shall so state in writing in such order.

Indeed, these defendants argue that Order No. 20 which certified the plaintiff class raises certain controlling questions, which are subject to substantial dispute, and the determination of these questions will substantially affect and advance the outcome of this litigation.

Generally an order certifying a class is not subject to interlocutory appeal. Link v. Mercedes-Benz of North America, Inc., 550 F.2d 860 (3d Cir.1977) (en banc), cert. denied 431 U.S. 933, 97 S.Ct. 2641, 53 L.Ed.2d 250 (1977). The court reasoned that a class certification order is generally conditional and subject to amendment by the district court.2 Id. at 863. For an interlocutory appeal to be proper the class certification decision must be accompanied by special factors which remove it from the general rule. Id. at 862. While the Third Circuit in Link did not fully explain what constitutes special circumstances, it did suggest that where it had “considered and reversed class action certification, there were other overruling legal issues ...” Id. at 863. Cf. Coopers & Lybrand v. Livesay, 437 U.S. 463, 477 n. 30, 98 S.Ct. 2454, 2462 n. 30, 57 L.Ed.2d 351 (The indiscriminate allowance of appeals from such discretionary orders [certification of a class] is plainly inconsistent with the policies promoted by § 1292(b)).

The sparse use of interlocutory review will minimize piecemeal review by the court of appeals. Certainly, the time consumed in taking an appeal may hinder or delay the litigation rather than materially advance it. Cf. Kamm v. California City Development Company, 509 F.2d 205 (9th Cir. 1975) (interlocutory appeal was authorized in November, 1973, the court of appeals ruled on the interlocutory appeal in January, 1975).

The defendants have raised seven distinct questions which they contend the court considered when it issued Order No. 20. Defendants argue that there is a substantial difference of opinion as to the resolution of each of these questions and that the resolution of these questions will materially affect and advance the outcome of this litigation. Accordingly, I will review each question separately.

(I) May a Court, on a motion for class certification, decide the issues of commonality (under Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(a)) and predominance (under Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(b)) without making an independent [218]*218determination of the elements of proof necessary to establish a prima facie case of liability under the plaintiffs’ claims, where there is a substantial dispute between the parties concerning the necessary elements of proof, and finding of both commonality and predominance is dependent upon resolution of the issue?

In order to determine whether a factual issue is common, and would predominate in the litigation, defendants maintain it is necessary to first decide what proof is required in order for the different class members to establish their claims.3 Defendants cite the following to support their position: Bogosian v. Gulf Oil Corp., 561 F.2d 434, 448 (3d Cir.1977) cert. denied, 434 U.S. 1086, 98 S.Ct. 1280, 55 L.Ed.2d 791. See Unger v. Dunkin’ Donuts of Am., Inc., 68 F.R.D. 65, 79, 139 (E.D.Pa.1975) rev’d, 531 F.2d 1211 (3d Cir.) cert. denied, 429 U.S. 823, 97 S.Ct. 74, 50 L.Ed.2d 84 (1976).

What the courts generally look to in evaluating a predominance question is the existence of a “common nucleus of operative facts”.

The dispute here is not over the proper element of plaintiffs’ causes of action, but over what facts are sufficient to prove them.

Even under defendants’ theory of the case, the question of “the general health hazards of asbestos” is central to the litigation. Moving defendants suggest that the question somehow involves only the damages of raw asbestos exposure at high levels. It does not; the question susceptible to common proof is the level of exposure at which asbestos becomes hazardous.

Similarly, “defendants’ knowledge or reason to know of asbestos hazards” does not refer only to what defendants knew about the hazards of raw asbestos. The question is what defendants knew about asbestos exposure at the levels found in schools in any context — raw asbestos or otherwise. This is a question whose answer remains constant for all plaintiffs and which would have to be resolved in each individual case. Whether defendants did or did not warn about or test their product, and whether defendants did or did not act in concert with respect to what they knew about asbestos, are likewise factual questions that underlie the lawsuit no matter what is deemed sufficient proof of a prima facie case.

Accordingly, by identifying the common questions in this lawsuit, this court has neither abandoned its responsibility to identify the elements of plaintiff’s prima facie case nor embraced an erroneous legal theory. It has simply made the determination that a certain common nucleus of fact constitutes a significant part of the individual claims. See Cohen v. Uniroyal, Inc., 77 F.R.D. 685, 690-91 (E.D.Pa.1977) where Judge Higginbotham (now a judge on the Third Circuit) held that all that is required is a showing by plaintiffs that their cause of action arises out of a common nucleus of operative facts.

This case is distinguishable from Ungar v. Dunkin’ Donuts, 68 F.R.D. 65 (E.D.Pa.1975), rev’d, 531 F.2d 1211 (3d Cir.1976), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 823, 97 S.Ct. 74, 50 L.Ed.2d 84 (1976), which moving defendants appear to believe is dispositive. In Ungar, the district court's finding that common questions predominated for class purposes was expressly premised on its legal conclusion that coercion, a particular element of the plaintiff’s case, could be proved by general evidence of defendants’ marketing practices. See 531 F.2d at 1213. Here the court has made no such legal conclusions about the element of proof of plaintiffs’ case on liability; it has simply isolated basic questions of fact, common to all plaintiffs, that they must be answered no matter what constitutes a prima facie case.

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Bluebook (online)
107 F.R.D. 215, 2 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 1316, 1985 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21313, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-asbestos-school-litigation-paed-1985.