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Class Certification

By: Derek Hawkins//August 8, 2016//

Class Certification

By: Derek Hawkins//August 8, 2016//

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7th Circuit court of Appeals

Case Name: Kleen Products, LLC, et al v. International Paper Company, et al

Case No.: 15-2385; 152386

Officials: WOOD, Chief Judge, and BAUER and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Class Certification

“Some class members settled claims in an earlier lawsuit against the same companies, dealing with the same industry. Defendants represent that there are 39 relevant settlement agreements implicating almost 10,000 of the individual claims at issue. The Purchasers respond that these numbers are wrong, because they involve double-counting and give an exaggerated impression of the real number of affected class members, since most people who signed releases did so with multiple defendants. More importantly, Purchasers also note that the Defendants’ numbers imply that most people who signed releases did so after the events giving rise to the present case, whereas in reality the releases are heavily distributed toward the beginning of the class period or earlier. Purchasers suggest the simple expedient of limiting the recovery period for any class member who signed a release to purchases made after that release was signed. That strikes us as an easy and effective way to handle this problem. Moreover, as the district court observed, the fact that some plaintiffs released the defendants from further liability for their actions in the mid-1990s is not a life-time inoculation against antitrust liability in the same industry.”

Affirmed

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.

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