Winder Licensing, Inc. v. King Instrument Corp.

131 F.R.D. 538, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7915, 1990 WL 87559
District Court, N.D. Illinois·Decided June 25, 1990·No. No. 89 C 7006·Published·Cited by 2 cases

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

LINDBERG, District Judge.

Pending in this case are a second motion for class certification; several motions by various defendants to be dismissed from this case; and a motion by various defendants to stay discovery pending this court’s ruling on the motions to dismiss. Before the court is also a Notice of Dismissal Under Rule 41(a)(1) filed by plaintiff, which affects most of the motions to dismiss. The court will at this time rule on the motions currently pending in this case.

This court denied a motion for class certification in this case based on Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(b)(1)(A). FRCP 23(b)(1)(A). Plaintiff on May 15, 1990, moved again for class certification, this time based on Rule 23(b)(2). FRCP 23(b)(2). Plaintiff has filed a memorandum in support of this motion, as permitted by this court’s order of May 15, 1990. On review of that memorandum the court finds that further briefing will not be necessary, and will rule on the motion on the basis of plaintiff’s motion and memorandum and defendants’ oral remarks.

The rule upon which plaintiff now relies in its quest for class certification provides:

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 ...

FRCP 23(b)(2). The class may not be certified under this rule.

First, plaintiff did not plead this ground for class certification in its amended complaint. The amended complaint pled the grounds set forth in Rules 23(b)(1)(A), 23(b)(1)(B), and 23(b)(3), but not the ground set forth in Rule 23(b)(2). FRCP 23(b).

Second, and more important, class certification under Rule 23(b)(2) is only available when final injunctive or declaratory relief is sought. In other words, Rule 23(b)(2):

[Djoes not extend to cases in which the appropriate final relief relates exclusively or predominantly to money damages.

FRCP 23(b)(2), 28 U.S.C.A. R.23, Notes of Advisory Committee on Rules at 54 (West 1981). In the amended complaint, plaintiff states:

On information and belief, Defendants will continue such infringement unless enjoined by this Court. Nevertheless, Plaintiff seeks only damages and/or an accounting under this Complaint.

Since the appropriate final relief for a prevailing plaintiff on such a complaint would be money damages, and not “final injunctive relief or corresponding declaratory relief,” Rule 23(b)(2) does not extend to this case.

Third, and most fundamentally, Rule 23(b)(2) is only applicable to the certification of a plaintiff class. As the standard treatise on federal procedure states:

Although arguments have been made that certification of defendant class suits under Rule 23(b)(2) would be desirable, as well as consistent with the policies [540]*540underlying the rule, the fact remains that the language is clear, and the better view is to restrict its applicability to plaintiff classes seeking injunctive relief.

Charles Alan Wright, Arthur R. Miller, and Mary Kay Kane, 7A Federal Practice and Procedure § 1775 at 461-62 (West, 2d ed. 1986). After careful analysis, the Seventh Circuit reached this same conclusion in Henson v. East Lincoln Township, 814 F.2d 410 (7th Cir.1987).

Plaintiff argues in a footnote that:

With respect to patent cases, however, this Court is bound by the Federal Circuit’s decisions. The Federal Circuit continues to recognize Rule 23(b)(2) defendant classes as evidenced by its recent affirmance of judgment for plaintiff against a 23(b)(2) class in Webcraft [Technologies, Inc. v. Alden Press, Inc., 228 USPQ 182, 1985 WL 2270 (ND Ill 1985) ]. This decision also confirms that the Federal Circuit has no difficulty with certifying a class where the court does not have venue over all the class members. (See May 8, 1990 order of affirmance attached as Exhibit A.)

This is not a proper use of the Federal Circuit’s decision in Webcraft.

At the top of the face of the Federal Circuit’s judgment of affirmance, the following is printed:

Note: This judgment is not accompanied by an opinion prepared for publication in a printed volume because it does not add significantly to the body of law and is not of widespread legal interest. It is a public record. It is not citable as a precedent. The decision will appear in tables published periodically.

A judgment with a note of this sort on it is not of value as a precedent. That the unpublished opinion is unavailable, and so is premised on grounds unknown, erodes still further the possibility of reliance on the judgment. For plaintiff to contend that “[t]he Federal Circuit continues to recognize Rule 23(b)(2) defendant classes as evidenced by its recent affirmance of judgment for plaintiff against a 23(b)(2) class in Webcraft ” by citation to an expressly nonprecedential judgment which is unaccompanied by a published order, without citation to any prior case in which the Federal Circuit has ever recognized a Rule 23(b)(2) defendant class, at the very least borders on the deceptive.

For the reason, too, that Rule 23(b)(2) is inapplicable to defendant class actions, the class at bar cannot be certified. See FRCP 23(b)(2).

As was true when this court ruled on the first motion for class certification, this resolution of the issue makes it unnecessary to determine whether the requirements of Rule 23(a) have been established by plaintiff. Also, because the two motions for certification have been premised solely on subdivisions (b)(1)(A) and (b)(2) of Rule 23, it has been unnecessary to determine whether it might be possible to maintain this case as a defendant class action under any of the other parts of Rule 23(b). The court again expresses no opinion on either of those topics.

Plaintiff also, on June 8, 1990, filed a Notice of Dismissal Under Rule 41(a)(1), voluntarily dismissing without prejudice defendants Otari Electrical Co. Ltd., Otari Corporation, Minnesota Mining & Mfg., Capitol Records, Inc., and King Instrument Corp. See FRCP 41(a)(1). It appears that none of these defendants has filed an answer or a motion for summary judgment. Therefore, plaintiff is entitled to have them voluntarily dismissed without prejudice under Rule 41(a)(1).

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Winder Licensing, Inc. v. King Instrument Corp., 131 F.R.D. 538, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7915, 1990 WL 87559 (N.D. Ill. 1990).

131 F.R.D. 538 (Winder Licensing, Inc. v. King Instrument Corp.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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