Sturdevant v. Deer

73 F.R.D. 375, 1976 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11936
District Court, E.D. Wisconsin·Decided December 9, 1976·No. No. 75-C-381·Published·Cited by 10 cases

Opinion

DECISION AND ORDER

MYRON L. GORDON, District Judge.

The plaintiffs have moved for an order that this action is maintainable as a class action, and the defendants have moved for an evidentiary hearing on the plaintiffs’ motion. The plaintiffs have also moved to join additional defendants pursuant to Rule 25, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The defendants have moved for a hearing on the issue of whether they are members of a body constituting an “Indian Tribe exercising powers of self-government” within the meaning of the Indian Civil Rights Act, 25 U.S.C. § 1302. In addition, the defendants have moved for a stay of discovery on the merits pending resolution of challenges to this court’s jurisdiction. The plaintiffs’ motions will be granted, and the defendants’ motions will be denied.

CLASS ACTION

The plaintiffs, enrolled members of the Menominee Indian Tribe, seek injunctive relief against the defendants in their capacity as members of the Menominee Restoration Committee, Menominee Tribal Enterprises, and Menominee Enterprises Incorporated, for alleged violations of the Indian Civil Rights Act, 25 U.S.C. § 1302, breaches of fiduciary duty, and negligence. Six counts of the amended complaint based on alleged violations of the fifth amendment were dismissed in a decision and order dated February 18, 1976.

The plaintiffs’ motion for determination of the maintainability of this action as a class action seeks certification of a class defined as “all Menominees now enrolled and all now living Menominee to be enrolled in the future.” In opposing this motion and moving for an oral hearing on the issue of a class action determination, the defendants contend that the plaintiffs have not satisfied the requirements of Rule 23, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, for maintenance of a class action.

Rule 23, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, provides in part:

“(a) Prerequisites to a Class Action. One or more members of a class may sue or be sued as representative parties on behalf of all only if (1) the class is so numerous that joinder of all members is impracticable, (2) there are questions of law or fact common to the class, (3) the claims or defenses of the representative parties are typical of the claims or defenses of the class, and (4) the representative parties will fairly and adequately protect the interests of the class.
“(b) Class Actions Maintainable. An action may be maintained as a class action if the prerequisites of subdivision (a) are satisfied, and in addition: ... (2) the party opposing the class has acted or refused to act on grounds generally applicable to the class, thereby making appropriate final injunctive relief or corresponding declaratory relief with respect to the class as a whole”.

The defendants suggest that the class proposed by the plaintiffs fails to meet the numbers requirement of Rule 23(a)(1), although they acknowledge that such a class consists of more than three thousand [378] people. They argue that the court should look to the number of persons likely to make claims, rather than to the size of the purported class, citing Herrmann v. Atlantic Richfield Co., 65 F.R.D. 585 (W.D.Pa.1974). While such a test may be applicable to claims for monetary relief, it is inappropriate for claims for injunctive relief, as in the case at bar. Not all members of the proposed class need to be aggrieved by or desire to challenge the defendants’ conduct. “In civil rights cases of the nature of the present case, the numerosity requirement is usually satisfied by the showing of a colorable claim by the named plaintiff who is a member of a larger class having potentially similar claims.” Weathers v. Peters Realty Corporation, 499 F.2d 1197, 1200 (6th Cir. 1974) . See also Jones v. Diamond, 519 F.2d 1090 (5th Cir. 1975); Davis v. Weir, 497 F.2d 139, 146 (5th Cir. 1974); Norwalk CORE v. Norwalk Redevelopment Agency, 395 F.2d 920 (2d Cir. 1968). The defendants also suggest that a class action should be disallowed when other methods would be as well-suited. However, the court of appeals for the seventh circuit has stated: “If the prerequisites and conditions of Fed.R.Civ.P. 23 are met, a court may not deny class status because there is no ‘need’ for it.” Fujishima v. Board of Education, 460 F.2d 1355, 1360 (7th Cir. 1972).

The defendants contend that the claims of the representative plaintiffs fail to meet the typicality test of Rule 23(a)(3), since a number of allegations of the amended complaint refer to alleged actions of the defendants which affected only the representative plaintiffs. However, “it is not necessary, as defendant contends, for each and every issue to have been raised by each and every member of the class or class representatives. Rather, it is only necessary that each issue be raised by at least one class representative or, failing that, at least one class member.” Herrmann v. Atlantic Richfield Co., supra, p. 592. Moreover, as stated by the court in Blackie v. Barrack, 524 F.2d 891, 901 n. 17 (9th Cir. 1975) :

“The court is bound to take the substantive allegations of the complaint as true, thus necessarily making the class order speculative in the sense that the plaintiff may be altogether unable to prove his allegations. While the court may not put the plaintiff to preliminary proof of his claim, it does require sufficient information to form a reasonable judgment.”

Under these standards, I believe that the plaintiffs have met their burden of showing typicality as required by Rule 23(a)(3).

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Sturdevant v. Deer, 73 F.R.D. 375, 1976 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11936 (E.D. Wis. 1976).

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