In Davis v. Cintas Corp., No. 10-1662 (6th Cir. May 30, 2013), the Sixth Circuit affirmed the denial of a class certification bid in a sexual discrimination hiring case à la Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes and dismissed the plaintiff’s individual disparate treatment claim where the plaintiff claimed she was at least as qualified (if not more so) than male candidates who were hired.
Continue Reading No No No…Not In Our Court. Sixth Circuit Uses Dukes v. Wal-Mart To Block Class Certification and Extends It To Bar Hiring Discrimination Class Claims

The United States Supreme Court last week continued the trend, begun with its 2011 decision in Wal-Mart Stores v. Dukes, 131 S. Ct. 2541, of demanding heightened scrutiny of commonality issues prior to certification of class actions, this time holding that the plaintiffs’ failure to put forward a viable method for calculating class-wide damages was fatal to their efforts to obtain certification.
Continue Reading United States Supreme Court Delivers Major Win for Employers – Once Again Raising the Bar for Certifying Class Actions

The much-awaited decision of the United States Supreme Court is here. Dubbed by Justice Scalia as “one of the most expansive class actions ever,” the Supreme Court unanimously reversed the decision of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals which had affirmed the certification of a class of approximately 1.5 million current and former female employees alleging discrimination in pay and promotion.
Continue Reading Wal-Mart v. Dukes: Supreme Court Rejects “Expansive” Gender Bias Class Action In Absence of “General Policy of Discrimination”

On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument on Wal-Mart’s appeal of the Ninth Circuit’s en banc decision upholding the certification of a class action gender discrimination lawsuit in Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. As noted by a number of commentators (among them The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The Christian Science Monitor, and CNN), the tone of the Court’s questioning indicates that the Court is likely to rule in Wal-Mart’s favor.

This appeal stemmed from a federal court’s certification of a nationwide class of female employees of Wal-Mart who were allegedly subjected to discriminatory pay and promotion policies. The class seeks injunctive relief and money damages (back pay) for all women employed since December 1998 in positions ranging from entry-level hourly employees to salaried managers. The class certified in 2004 included 1.5 million women; it currently is estimated to include 3 million women. The district court and Ninth Circuit certified the class after concluding that statistics and sociological expert testimony could allow Plaintiffs to show that Wal-Mart’s culture, when combined with its decentralized decision-making structure, resulted in discrimination against Wal-Mart’s female employees. Those courts approved class certification despite (1) Wal-Mart’s written policy of anti-discrimination, (2) evidence that there was no gender-based pay disparity at 90% of Wal-Mart’s stores, (3) an admission by plaintiff’s expert that he could not say whether discrimination was happening .05% or 95% of the time, and (4) a class that included at least 544 female store managers who would have been both victim and discriminator, under the plaintiffs’ theory.Continue Reading A Skeptical U.S. Supreme Court Vigorously Questions Certification of a Mammoth Sex-Discrimination Class Action Lawsuit

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it would hear Wal-Mart’s appeal of the Ninth Circuit’s en banc decision upholding the certification of a class action gender discrimination lawsuit in Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. 

As previously noted here and here,  the plaintiffs in Dukes sought to obtain certification of a nationwide class of

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently announced it will review the February 2007 decision to certify a class that potentially includes 1.5 million current and former female employees allegedly underpaid and denied promotion opportunities on the basis of their sex.
Continue Reading Ninth Circuit to Hear Argument on Class Certification Decision in Wal-Mart Class Case

In an unusual procedural move, a Ninth Circuit panel issued a revised opinion and rejected—for the second time—Wal-Mart’s request to overrule a lower court decision granting class action status to a lawsuit by six women representing a class of more than 1.5 million female workers. Dukes v. Wal-Mart, Inc., Case Nos. 04-16688 and 04-16720, 2007 U.S. App. LEXIS 28551 (9th Cir. Dec. 11, 2007). The class includes all female workers—from part-time, entry-level hourly employees to full-time, salaried managers—at Wal-Mart stores from December 1998 to the present “who have been or may be subjected to Wal-Mart’s challenged pay and management track promotions, policies and practices.” The lawsuit alleges that female employees were paid less than men and given fewer promotions. If the case proceeds, it will be the largest sex discrimination case in U.S. history. The revised opinion addresses some of the criticisms directed toward the earlier opinion and changes some of the reasoning, though not the result, of the court’s earlier decision.
Continue Reading Ninth Circuit Panel Again Upholds Granting of Class Action Status to Wal-Mart Female Workers; Wal-Mart Again Petitions For En Banc Review