Michael Williamson v. Erick Geisler

644 F. App'x 777

• Court: Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
• Decided: March 15, 2016
• Docket: 14-55843
• Status: Unpublished

Opinion

MEMORANDUM **

Michael Williamson and Dwight Lay appeal the district court’s denial of their motion for class certification pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291.

The district court did not abuse its discretion in holding that the appellants failed to meet their burden of demonstrating that their proposed class met the numerosity and superiority requirements of Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. See Gen. Tel. Co. of the Nw., Inc. v. EEOC, 446 U.S. 318, 330 & n. 14, 100 S.Ct. 1698, 64 L,Ed.2d 319 (1980); Hank v. Cal. Teachers Ass’n, 326 F.3d 1042, 1051-52 (9th Cir.2003); see also Wolin v. Jaguar Land Rover N. Am., LLC, 617 F.3d 1168, 1175 (9th Cir.2010). Although appellants argue on appeal that the proposed class contains in excess of 100 members, their argument to the district court indicated a class size in the neighborhood of 40 to 50 members. Numerosity is far from clear with numbers in that range. Gen. Tel., 446 U.S. at 330 n. 14, 100 S.Ct. 1698. Moreover, nothing in the record contradicted the appellees’ evidence that a majority of prospective class members had signed individual releases of their claims, see Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes, 564 U.S. 338, 131 S.Ct. 2541, 2551, 180 L.Ed.2d 374 (2011), and the appellants failed to provide any evidence supporting their argument that the individual releases were invalid under section 206.5(a) of the California Labor Code.

AFFIRMED.

** This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent except as provided by 9th Cir. R. 36-3.