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10-2379 Gomez v. St. Vincent Health, Inc.

By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//August 16, 2011//

10-2379 Gomez v. St. Vincent Health, Inc.

By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//August 16, 2011//

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Civil Procedure
Class certification; adequate representative

It was not an abuse of discretion to deny class certification, where the district court found that the attorney representing the proposed class representative had performed poorly in other class actions.

“The district court assessed the proposed class counsel in this case and determined that his ‘actions during his attempts to represent the proposed class through two separate suits [did] not make him an adequate class counsel.’ It based this conclusion on counsel’s conduct during both the Brown-Pfifercase and this case. In the Brown-Pfiferlitigation, another judge in the same district court found that counsel was not diligent in prosecuting his proposed class action, had engaged in faulty discovery efforts, had been subjected to orders to compel and awards of cost, and had failed to develop a full record for summary judgment consideration; that judge denied class certification in part based upon proposed class counsel’s inadequacy. In this case, the district court judge considered those findings from Brown-Pfifer. It then noted that the same proposed class counsel had brought a nearly identical case here and that—at the certification stage—he made “no arguments that are different from those” in Brown-Pfifer. The district court went on to note that counsel had already been ordered to pay expenses in conjunction with the Company’s motion to compel in this case. It also found that counsel’s ‘questionable work in [the Brown-Pfifer] case and his decision to relitigate the same issues in this court show a lack of regard for scarce judicial resources.’Gomez v. St. Vincent Health, Inc., 1:08-cv-0153, 2009 WL 1853120, at *3 (S.D. Ind. June 25, 2009). Based on these considerations, the district court determined that proposed class counsel was an inadequate representative of the proposed class and that certification had to be denied accordingly.”

Affirmed.

10-2379 Gomez v. St. Vincent Health, Inc.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, Barker, J., Kanne, J.

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