In re Piper Aircraft Distribution System Antitrust Litigation

411 F. Supp. 115, 21 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 1280, 1976 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16684
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Missouri
DecidedFebruary 12, 1976
DocketNo. 217
StatusPublished

This text of 411 F. Supp. 115 (In re Piper Aircraft Distribution System Antitrust Litigation) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Piper Aircraft Distribution System Antitrust Litigation, 411 F. Supp. 115, 21 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 1280, 1976 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16684 (W.D. Mo. 1976).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM

GORBEY, District Judge.

On December 18, 1975, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, pursuant to a motion filed by Van-S-Aviation Corporation, ordered that six antitrust actions then pending in six different districts 1 be consolidated for pretrial proceedings in the Western District of Missouri, 405 F.Supp. 1402. On January 21, 1976, the first pretrial conference was held at which time it was determined that before these cases could proceed any further, numerous outstanding motions in each case must first be decided. Primary among these motions is an identical motion filed in five of the six districts to dismiss the plaintiff’s class action allegations. Two of the three defendants in the sixth action2 have subsequent to the pretrial conference, joined in this motion. Since a determination of this motion might render most of the other motions moot, I will consider it first.

On December 10, 1978, Van-S-Aviation Corporation (hereinafter referred to as “Van-S”) filed an action on behalf of an alleged class of current and former authorized Piper dealers in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida (Florida action). Many of the defendants in the Florida action are defendants herein. In the Florida action a hearing was held on [117]*117April 22 and 23, 1974, to determine whether or not the action should proceed as a class action. Subsequent to that hearing, on May 2, 1974, the Florida court determined that:

“1. The claim of the Plaintiff, Van-S-Aviation Corporation, is not typical of the claim, if any, of the class, as required by Rule 23(a)(3).
2. The representative party, Van-S-Aviation Corporation, will not fairly and adequately protect the interests of the purported class, as required by Rule 23(a)(4).
3. The questions of law or fact common to members of the class do not predominate over questions affecting only individual members, as provided by Rule 23(b)(3).
4. A class action would not be superi- or to other available methods for the fair and efficient adjudication of the controversy as provided under Rule 23(b)(3).
For each of the foregoing reasons, the Plaintiff’s motion to proceed as a class action has been denied. It is further ordered that the case shall proceed by the individual Plaintiff, Van-S-Aviation Corporation, against the Defendants.”

The day after the Florida court issued its order, Van-S voluntarily dismissed its individual claims in the Florida law suit pursuant to Rule 41(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

In the instant motion to dismiss the class action allegations of the plaintiff, the defendants point out that Van-S is requesting the exact same class which it requested and was denied in the Florida action. Defendants claim that the class action issue was fully litigated and conclusively determined in the Florida action. They, further claim that Van-S is now estopped from relitigating that issue. For the reasons stated infra, I agree with the defendants and therefore grant their motion to dismiss the class action allegations of the plaintiff.

The doctrine of collateral estoppel can be used defensively by a party not a defendant in the original case against a plaintiff who was the plaintiff in the original case. In Blonder-Tongue Lab Inc. v. University of Illinois Found., 402 U.S. 313, 91 S.Ct. 1434, 28 L.Ed.2d 788, the Supreme Court ruled in a patent infringement suit that the patentee would be estopped from asserting the validity of a patent that had been declared invalid in a prior suit in federal court against a different defendant unless he could demonstrate that he did not have a full and fair opportunity, procedurally, substantively, and evidentially, to litigate its validity in the prior suit. Further, since the issue herein involves the propriety of the plaintiff acting as a class representative in each suit, and since the evidence would be the same in each suit, it is irrelevant whether or not each individual defendant was named in the prior suit. Therefore, the decision to be rendered today will be applicable to all defendants named in each district irrespective of whether or not they were named in the Florida action.

Section 68 of the Restatement of the Law, Second, Judgments (Tentative Draft No. 1, March 28, 1973) states:

“When an issue of fact or law is actually litigated and determined by a valid and final judgment, and the determination is essential to the judgment, the determination is conclusive in a subsequent action between the parties, whether on the same or a different claim.”

Comment a. to § 68 begins:

“The rule of issue preclusion is operative where the second action is between the same persons who were parties to the prior action, and who were adversaries with respect to the particular issue, whether the second action is brought by the plaintiff or by the defendant in the original action. It is operative whether the judgment in the first action is in favor of the plaintiff or of the defendant. The effect of a judgment for the defendant in the first action may be to require a judgment for the defendant in the second action . . . ”

[118]*118Van-S cannot disagree that it is attempting to relitigate the exact same issue, that is, whether or not a class action should be maintained with Van-S as the representative of that class. Van-S claims the class issue and the propriety of Van-S as serving as a class representative was neither fully nor thoroughly determined in the Florida litigation, and that the ruling in Florida denying a class certification did not conclusively determine the class issue.

Plaintiff’s defense is twofold: (1) plaintiff claims that the Florida decision was not a final judgment for purposes of res judicata; and (2) plaintiff claims that it has not had “its full day in court on the class action issue, and is certainly not estopped on the basis of the Florida proceedings which were demonstrably a miscarriage of justice.” (Plaintiff’s brief, page 6)

In Huff v. N. D. Cass Co. of Alabama, 468 F.2d 172, 179 (5th Cir. 1972), the court stated:

“Unless abuse is shown, the decision of a trial court as to whether a class action is properly brought is final . Rule 23(c)(1) requires a trial court to make a determination, as early in the proceedings as may be practicable, as to whether an action brought as a class action is to be maintained as such.”

Section 41 of the Restatement, Second, Judgments, entitled “Requirement of Finality”, provides:

“The rules of res judicata are applicable only when a final judgment is rendered. However, for purposes of issue preclusion (as distinguished from merger and bar), ‘final judgment’ includes any prior adjudication of an issue in another action between the parties that is determined to be sufficiently firm to be accorded conclusive effect.”

Comment b. to this section provides in part:

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411 F. Supp. 115, 21 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 1280, 1976 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16684, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-piper-aircraft-distribution-system-antitrust-litigation-mowd-1976.