Kramer v. Scientific Control Corp.

67 F.R.D. 98, 20 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 400
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedApril 17, 1975
DocketCiv. A. No. 71-1954
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 67 F.R.D. 98 (Kramer v. Scientific Control Corp.) 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
Kramer v. Scientific Control Corp., 67 F.R.D. 98, 20 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 400 (E.D. Pa. 1975).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

BECHTLE, District Judge.

This Court permitted this case to proceed as a class action on October 1, 1974, after delaying that decision until after it had ruled on defendants’ various motions to dismiss.1 Defendants now ask this Court to revoke that Order. For reasons hereinafter stated, we will deny their motion for reconsideration.

While a class action determination is never irrevocable, Seligson v. Plum Tree, Inc., 61 F.R.D. 343 (E.D.Pa.1973), the proponents of revocation or modification of a class action Order should, at a minimum, show some newly discovered facts or law in support of their desired action. Defendants have not met that minimum. The grounds they list now include those which they gave previously or could have asserted earlier but did not. It seems that the two named plaintiffs are capable of acting as class representatives.

Plaintiffs are members of the law firm which employs the lawyer who represents them. Defendants’ main ground is that a conflict of interest between plaintiffs and the class they represent is inherent in their being represented by their own law firm.2 In the case of Umbriac v. American Snacks, Inc., 388 F.Supp. 265 (E.D.Pa. decided January 27, 1975), plaintiffs sought to represent a class of debenture holders who purchased the securities after relying upon a misleading prospectus. One of the named plaintiffs was a partner of the law firm representing the plaintiffs. The case was transferred from this District to the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts under 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a). Nevertheless, Judge Higginbotham, as the transferor Judge, fortunately expressed his opinion on how he would have resolved the attorney-representation conflict issue, if the matter were not transferred, as follows:

“Touche Ross contends that a conflict of interest exists between the representative parties and the class because the named plaintiffs, Cletus Lyman, Esquire, is an attorney and partner with counsel for plaintiffs, Richard A. Ash, Esquire, in the law firm of Lyman & Ash. The remaining named plaintiffs, defendants claim, are ‘siblings’ of Cletus Lyman. It is in the nature of the motion practice on class [100]*100determination issues that defendants, who naturally have no interest in the successful prosecution of the class suit against them, are called upon to interpose arguments in opposition to class determination motions verbally grounded upon a concern for the ‘best’ representation for the class while the implicit, but nonetheless real, objective of their vigorous legal assaults is to insure ‘no’ representation for the class. Of course I must assess defendants’ argument upon its intrinsic merit, but on this issue it is my judgment that Lyman’s status as an attorney, his business relationship with counsel for plaintiffs, and his family relationship with the other named plaintiffs do not create interests which are adverse to those of the class, and thus neither the named plaintiffs nor counsel for plaintiffs should be disqualified from class representation. Although Cletus Lyman may benefit through his partnership in the law firm of Lyman & Ash from an award of legal fees, if plaintiffs are successful in the present litigation, this interest does not in my opinion create substantially more of a risk that the suit would be compromised unfairly as respects class interests than would exist if there were no relationship between the representative parties and counsel for plaintiffs. The vision of substantial counsel fees might cloud the judgment of counsel for plaintiffs and the representative parties but the court does not in granting a motion for class determination entrust to the representative parties ultimate responsibility for determining the fairness to the class of settlement decisions which compromise class interests. Any compromise or dismissal of a class action must be approved by the court and notice of the proposed compromise or dismissal must be given to all class members; judicial approval should be granted only after the court determines that the compromise is in the interest of the entire class. Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(e). Euresti v. Stenner, 458 F.2d 1115 (10th Cir. 1972). In my estimation the safeguard provided in Rule 23(e) against litigation compromises unfair to the class as a whole are adequate to insure protection of class interest under the representation of these named plaintiffs and counsel. Kramer v. Scientific Control Corp., 365 F.Supp. 780 (E.D.Pa.1973) (See also Slip Opinion of October 1, 1974).” Id. at 275 (footnote omitted).

Blumberg v. Barrett (E.D.Pa., C.A. No. 73-237, decided December 27, 1974), is not to the contrary. In that case, this Court found there was a conflict created by having Malcolm Blum-berg, Esquire, as one of the named plaintiffs. This was not just because he was a member of the law firm representing plaintiffs, but for the reason that the law firm was a close friend and business associate of another named plaintiff, William Richman, whose interest clashed with those of the absent class members. In fact, the plaintiffs should have sued Richman but omitted to do so.

Moreover, Rule 23(d) 3 allows some latitude for the District Court to take appropriate action to guard against any conflicts of interest which would crop up in the course of the action. Kauffman v. Dreyfus Fund, Inc., 434 F.2d 727, 737 (3rd Cir. 1970).

Plaintiffs purchased their shares of Scientific stock from the brokerage firm of Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Smith, Incorporated (“Merrill Lynch”). A number of former shareholders of Scientific commenced actions in the [101]*101United States District Courts against Merrill Lynch for the role it played in selling stock to the public. One of the actions was brought in the Northern District of Texas, another in the Southern District of New York. Defendants contend that the failure of plaintiffs to name Merrill Lynch, a former client of theirs, as a defendant in this action disqualifies them from representing the class. That plaintiffs chose not to sue Merrill Lynch for reasons other than the fact that they had previously represented that firm is supported by the record.

The most important one is that there is no proof that the brokerage firm recommended that plaintiffs make the purchases. Second, the actions against Merrill Lynch are based on that firm’s alleged misrepresentations and omissions of material facts in its written and oral statements. In an action brought against the brokerage firm in the Northern District of Texas, the Fifth Circuit has ruled that the case was not appropriate for class action treatment because of the nonstandardized form of the alleged misrepresentations. Simon v. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Smith, Inc., 482 F.2d 880 (1973). The District Court for the Southern District of New York held the class action motion in the case before it in abeyance to permit the plaintiffs in the case to submit additional evidence regarding the sale of stock by the brokerage firm. Mascolo v.

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