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| Class Action Reform or Class Action Restriction? |
| The Class Action Fairness Act of 2003 seems to be anything but fair to citizens and other organizations seeking to hold polluting defendants accountable under state laws. According to S 274's language, this act is needed to protect class action participants from potential abuses, to protect interstate commerce, and to prevent class action rulings from becoming the law of the state. That sounds as if it may be an attempt at reform, but rather it is a guise for defendants to potentially move cases from state court to federal court under certain situations. Two conditions that would automatically give a federal district court original jurisdiction would be in cases where "any member of a class of plaintiffs is a citizen of a State different from any defendant," or where the matter of controversy exceeds $5 million. However, the bill does provide instances in which these conditions would not automatically be applicable including cases where "the number of members of all proposed plaintiff classes in the aggregate is less than 100." Even if 100 or more persons did not want to be lumped together in a class action suit they could be. A letter written by the Judicial Conference of the United States to the Senate Judiciary Committee not only opposes this legislation, but said that if it should pass exceptions were needed. One exception would be cases "in which plaintiff class members suffered personal injury or personal property damage within the state, as in the case of serious environmental damage." Recently, in Anniston, Alabama, 3,500 people are recovering damages for PCB contamination that Monsanto and Solutia exposed them to over the years. If S 274 had been in effect, the defendants could have tried to move the case to federal court unnecessarily delaying litigation, denying jurisdiction to the state court, and allowing the defendants to evade state law. The members of the US Senate were not elected to give polluters a chance to escape prosecution in state courts. S 274, if passed, would not only undermine a state's rights and laws, but hurt the citizens it allegedly sets out to protect. |
For
more information about SERC, or to use our services, contact our national
headquarters at:
State Environmental Resource Center
106 East Doty Street, Suite 200 § Madison, Wisconsin 53703
Phone: 608-252-9800 § Fax: 608-252-9828
Email: [email protected]
106 East Doty Street, Suite 200 § Madison, Wisconsin 53703
Phone: 608-252-9800 § Fax: 608-252-9828
Email: [email protected]
