Martin v. Behr Dayton Thermal Products LLC
United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
896 F.3d 405 (2018)
- Written by Liz Nakamura, JD
Facts
Behr Dayton Thermal Products LLC (Behr) (defendant) allegedly contaminated the groundwater in the McCook Field low-income neighborhood in Ohio. Terry Martin (plaintiff), along with other McCook Field property owners, brought a toxic-tort lawsuit against Behr and sought class certification under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(b)(3) as to liability only. The district court refused to certify the property owners’ case as a Rule 23(b)(3) class action, holding that the property owners’ individual issues predominated over common questions; however, the court certified seven issues for issue-class treatment under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(c)(4). For the seven identified issue-classes, the property owners shared a common question that could be resolved for all by a common answer. Behr appealed the issue-class certification order, arguing that the court could not certify issue-classes under Rule 23(c)(4) if the entire toxic-tort liability case did not pass the common-question predominance requirement of Rule 23(b)(3).
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Stranch, J.)
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