Johnson v. General Mills, Inc.

278 F.R.D. 548, 81 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 473, 2012 WL 32067, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3703
CourtDistrict Court, C.D. California
DecidedJanuary 5, 2012
DocketNo. SACV 10-00061-CJC(ANx)
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 278 F.R.D. 548 (Johnson v. General Mills, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, C.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Johnson v. General Mills, Inc., 278 F.R.D. 548, 81 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 473, 2012 WL 32067, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3703 (C.D. Cal. 2012).

Opinion

ORDER DISCHARGING ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE WHY THE CERTIFIED CLASS SHOULD CONTINUE TO INCLUDE PURCHASERS OF YOPLUS CONTAINED IN THE FOURTH GENERATION PACKAGING

CORMAC J. CARNEY, District Judge.

INTRODUCTION & BACKGROUND

Mr. Johnson has brought claims on behalf of himself and putative class members asserting that General Mills, Inc. and Yoplait USA, Inc. (collectively “Defendants”) violated California’s Unfair Competition Law (“UCL”) and Consumers Legal Remedies Act (“CLRA”) by falsely representing that YoPlus yogurt products promote digestive health.1 Mr. Johnson alleges that Defendants communicated this misrepresentation through product packaging and other forms [550]*550of marketing including television, newspaper, magazine, internet, and direct mail advertisements. On April 20, 2011, this Court granted Mr. Johnson’s motion for class certification. The Court found that Mr. Johnson’s claims met the commonality and predominance requirements for class certification required by Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure because both the CLRA and UCL claims presented core issues of law and fact, and those issues predominated over the issues in the case that would have to be determined on an individual basis. These common issues included: (1) whether General Mills communicated a representation— through YoPlus packaging and other marketing, including television and print advertisements — that YoPlus promoted digestive health; (2) if so, whether that representation was material to individuals purchasing Yo-Plus; (3) if the representation was material, whether it was truthful; in other words, whether YoPlus does confer a digestive health benefit that ordinary2 yogurt does not; and (4) if reasonable California consumers who purchased YoPlus were deceived by a material misrepresentation as to YoPlus’ digestive health benefit, what is the proper method for calculating their damages.

After this Court granted certification, the United States Supreme Court issued a decision in Wal-Mart v. Dukes, — U.S. -, 131 S.Ct. 2541, 180 L.Ed.2d 374 (2011) clarifying the requirements for a finding of commonality under Rule 23(a). In light of the Wal-Mart decision, Defendants brought a motion for class decertification, which the Court denied based on both Wal-Mart and Stearns v. Ticketmaster, 655 F.3d 1013 (9th Cir.2011), a ease which directly addressed the issue of class certification of claims brought pursuant to the UCL and the CLRA. On October 17, 2011, Mr. Johnson filed a motion for a pretrial conference regarding the issues of class notice dissemination and a motion to limit the class period to exclude purchasers of YoPlus contained in the fourth generation packaging (“fourth generation purchasers”) that Mr. Johnson believed Defendants intended to file. (Dkt. Nos. 141, 145.) Defendants responded that because the Court did not set a deadline for seeking partial decertification and the summary judgment motion deadline is March 9, 2012, it would be premature to require them to file a motion challenging the inclusion fourth generation purchasers. (Dkt. No. 146, at 1.) Additionally, Defendants indicated that the same issue was pending before the Florida district court’s companion case, and that, if that court included fourth generation purchasers, Defendants would be unlikely to pursue partial decertification in this case. (Id.) The Court, seeking to resolve the issue in a timely fashion before notice was sent to the class, issued an order directing Mr. Johnson to show cause why the class definition should continue to include persons who purchased YoPlus contained in the fourth generation packaging. (Dkt. No. 147.) After the Court issued its order to show cause, the Florida district court reviewing the same evidence, expanded its class definition to include fourth generation purchasers, but did so without explaining its reasoning. See Fitzpatrick v. General Mills, Inc., [Dkt. No. 181], Case No. 09-cv-60412-PCH (S.D.Fla. Dec. 12, 2011).

The issue currently before the Court is whether the class should continue to include fourth generation purchasers. The fourth generation of YoPlus packaging began to appear on retail shelves around January of 2011. While the fourth generation packaging retains the YoPlus name, mentions probiotics (the bacteria alleged to provide the digestive health benefit), and compares YoPlus yogurt to Dannon’s Activia (the leading brand of digestive health yogurt), the packaging does not contain an explicit statement regarding digestive health. (Pl.’s Resp. to OSC, at 3; Id. Ex. B.) Additionally as of December 2, 2011, the YoPlus website continued to state “Yoplait YoPlus Yogurt — Proactive Nutrition Yogurt to Improve Digestive Health” and displayed the fourth generation packaging. (Id. Ex. C.) For the following reasons, the Court finds that the class properly includes fourth generation purchasers, and DISCHARGES the order to show cause.

[551]*551ANALYSIS

A. Commonality and Predominance

Defendants assert that keeping fourth generation purchasers in the class would destroy commonality and predominance because, unlike previous packaging, there is no digestive health message explicitly on the package. To satisfy the commonality requirement, the plaintiff must establish that “there are questions of law or fact common to the class.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(a)(2). “Commonality requires the plaintiff to demonstrate that the class members ‘have suffered the same injury,’ ” which “does not mean merely that they have all suffered a violation of the same provision of law.” Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. 131 S.Ct. at 2551. The “claims must depend on a common contention” and “[tjhat common contention ... must be of such a nature that it is capable of elasswide resolution — which means that determination of its truth or falsity will resolve an issue that is central to the validity of each one of the claims in one stroke.” Id. “The existence of shared legal issues with divergent factual predicates is sufficient, as is a common core of salient facts coupled with disparate legal remedies within the class.” Hanlon v. Chrysler Corp., 150 F.3d 1011, 1019 (9th Cir.1998).

Mr. Johnson has presented sufficient facts to show that all of the class members’ claims have at their heart a common contention: Defendants made a material misrepresentation regarding the digestive health benefits of YoPlus that violated the UCL and the CLRA. The class members all assert they were misled by a common advertising campaign that had little to no variation. Mr. Johnson has presented evidence demonstrating that Defendants marketing campaign was prominent and not limited to statements made on the YoPlus packaging, and that the veracity of the digestive health method can be adjudicated once for the class as a whole, even as to fourth generation purchasers. The common questions Mr. Johnson identified still apply to the fourth generation purchasers because the packaging was not the only method of communicating the digestive health message.

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Bluebook (online)
278 F.R.D. 548, 81 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 473, 2012 WL 32067, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3703, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/johnson-v-general-mills-inc-cacd-2012.