As our nation and especially the legal community mourn the death of one of the most charismatic and influential Supreme Court justices in our history, one question that might be asked is how Justice Scalia’s death might impact pending class action cases. There are two pending class action cases of broad significance: Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins, which presents a question involving standing to sue in so-called “no injury” class actions; and Tyson Foods, Inc. v. Bouaphakeo, which involves whether a class can be certified based on a statistical sampling technique, and whether a class can properly be certified where it includes many members who were not injured.

Both cases were argued in November, and thus the Court could be close to finalizing decisions in them, although it may need to revisit that if Justice Scalia’s vote was decisisve. As Tom Goldstein explains at SCOTUSblog, the Court has traditionally not issued opinions based on the vote of a justice who has died or left the Court before the opinion is issued. There are two ways the Court has traditionally handled a justice’s death in the middle of a term, where the justice’s vote was decisive and the remaining members are divided 4-4. The Court could hold the case for reargument after a new justice is confirmed, or issue an order affirming the lower court based on the 4-4 deadlock. If the Senate refuses to confirm a nominee of President Obama, as Senate Republican leadership has suggested they might do, that could mean holding a case for reargument for quite a long time. Even if the next president were to make a nomination shortly after taking office next January 20, it would be at least a few months—towards the end of the next Court Term—before the seat would be filled, leaving the Court with only eight members for more than a year.

In Spokeo, based on my review of the oral argument transcript (see my November 3 blog post), the Court seemed to be largely in agreement that there has to be some concrete harm beyond a mere statutory violation to satisfy Article III standing requirements. There was a lot of disagreement over how to resolve the Spokeo case on its own allegations, however, suggesting that there might have been a 5-4 vote on that prior to Justice Scalia’s death. My guess is that, if Justice Scalia’s vote was decisive, the remaining justices might now find their way to a majority in favor of a narrower decision that corrects what they seemed to pretty much all think was wrong about the Ninth Circuit’s opinion, while resolving this case on narrow grounds, leaving some issues for another day. If that happens, it could be a small victory for class action defendants.

In Tyson Foods, my reading of the oral argument transcript (see my November 11 blog post) suggests that this case might not turn on Justice Scalia’s vote. The media’s interpretation was that Justice Kennedy would side with the plaintiffs, perhaps along with the four liberal justices. My effort to read the tea leaves suggested that Justice Kennedy, if he sided with the plaintiffs, would want to do so quite narrowly. He will still frequently be a lynchpin in the eight-member Court. I also thought that there seemed to be a broader majority in Tyson Foods in favor of a result that might explain how the way this case was presented to the jury was the wrong way to try a class action, and send the case back for a retrial without deciding much more than that. My guess is that we will see a majority opinion in this case, rather than a rehearing or affirmance because of a 4-4 vote. It could be a narrow opinion that provides district courts and class action practitioners some guidance on how a class action should be tried, and does not completely eliminate the possibility of statistical evidence being used, but leaves some of those details unanswered. The issue of many class members lacking injury, however, may be more difficult to resolve, and perhaps the Court might find a way to decide the case without deciding that issue if there were a tie vote on that question.

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Photo of Wystan Ackerman Wystan Ackerman

I am a partner at the law firm of Robinson+Cole in Hartford, Connecticut, USA.  My contact information is on the contact page of my blog.  I really enjoy receiving questions, comments, suggestions and even criticism from readers.  So please e-mail me if you…

I am a partner at the law firm of Robinson+Cole in Hartford, Connecticut, USA.  My contact information is on the contact page of my blog.  I really enjoy receiving questions, comments, suggestions and even criticism from readers.  So please e-mail me if you have something to say.  For those looking for my detailed law firm bio, click here.  If you want a more light-hearted and hopefully more interesting summary, read on:

People often ask about my unusual first name, Wystan.  It’s pronounced WISS-ten.  It’s not Winston.  There is no “n” in the middle.  It comes from my father’s favorite poet, W.H. (Wystan Hugh) Auden.  I’ve grown to like the fact that because my name is unusual people tend to remember it better, even if they don’t pronounce it right (and there is no need for anyone to use my last name because I’m always the only Wystan).

I grew up in Deep River, Connecticut, a small town on the west side of the Connecticut River in the south central part of the state.  I’ve always had strong interests in history, politics and baseball.  My heroes growing up were Abraham Lincoln and Wade Boggs (at that time the third baseman for the Boston Red Sox).  I think it was my early fascination with Lincoln that drove me to practice law.  I went to high school at The Williams School in New London, Connecticut, where I edited the school newspaper, played baseball, and was primarily responsible for the installation of a flag pole near the school entrance (it seemed like every other school had one but until my class raised the money and bought one at my urging, Williams had no flag pole).  As a high school senior, my interest in history and politics led me to score high enough on a test of those subjects to be chosen as one of Connecticut’s two delegates to the U.S. Senate Youth Program, which further solidified my interest in law and government.  One of my mentors at Williams was of the view that there were far too many lawyers and I should find something more useful to do, but if I really had to be a lawyer there was always room for one more.  I eventually decided to be that “one more.”  I went on to Bowdoin College, where I wrote for the Bowdoin Orient and majored in government, but took a lot of math classes because I found college math interesting and challenging.  I then went to Columbia Law School, where I was lucky enough to be selected as one of the minions who spent their time fastidiously cite-checking and Blue booking hundred-plus-page articles in the Columbia Law Review.  I also interned in the chambers of then-Judge Sonia Sotomayor when she was a relatively new judge on the Second Circuit, my only connection to someone who now has one-ninth of the last word on what constitutes the law of our land.  I graduated from Columbia in 2001, then worked at Skadden Arps in Boston before returning to Connecticut and joining Robinson+Cole, one of the largest Connecticut-based law firms.  At the end of 2008, I was elected a partner at Robinson+Cole.

I’ve worked on class actions since the start of my career at Skadden.  Being in the insurance capital of Hartford, we have a national insurance litigation practice and I was fortunate to have the opportunity to work on some prominent class actions arising from the 2004 hurricanes in Florida and later Hurricane Katrina, including cases involving the applicability of the flood exclusion, statutes known as valued policy laws, and various other issues.  My interest and experience in class actions gradually led me to focus on that area.

In Connecticut courts I’ve defended various kinds of class actions that go beyond insurance, including cases involving products liability, securities, financial services and consumer contracts.

My insurance class action practice usually takes me outside of Connecticut.  I’ve had the pleasure of working on cases in various federal and state courts and collaborating with great lawyers across the country.  While class actions are an increasingly large part of my practice, I don’t do exclusively class action work.  The rest of my practice involves litigating insurance coverage cases, often at the appellate level.  That also frequently takes me outside of Connecticut.  A highlight of my career thus far was working on Standard Fire Ins. Co. v. Knowles, the U.S. Supreme Court’s first Class Action Fairness Act case.  I was Counsel of Record for Standard Fire on the cert petition, and had the pleasure of working with Ted Boutrous on the merits briefing and oral argument.

I started this blog because writing is one of my favorite things to do and I enjoy following developments in class action law, writing about them and engaging in discussion with others who have an in interest in this area.  It’s a welcome break from day-to-day practice, keeps me current, broadens my network and results in some new business.

When I’m not at my desk or flying around the country trying to save insurance companies from the plaintiffs’ bar, or attending a conference on class actions or insurance litigation (for more on those, see the Seminars/Programs page of this blog), I often can be found playing or reading with my young daughter, helping my wife with her real estate and mortgage businesses, reading a book about history or politics, or watching the Boston Red Sox (I managed to find bleacher seats for Game 2 of the 2004 World Series when Curt Schilling pitched with the bloody sock).  When the weather is good I also love to take the ferry to Block Island, Rhode Island and ride a bike or walk the trails there. If you go, I highly recommend the Clay Head Trail.