Summary Analysis
R-15
DATE: 2019-02-26
DOCKET: 17-1094
NAME: Nutraceutical Corporation, Petitioner v. Troy Lambert
WORTHY: False
OPINION: Court
AUTHOR: Sotomayor
JOINING: Roberts, Thomas, Ginsburg, Breyer, Alito, Kagan, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh
GOOD: Yes
PAGES: 10
Case Commentary
When the law says you only get fourteen days, you only get fourteen days.- The Class was Certified.
- The Class was Decertified.
- An appeal was not filed in the required 14 days.
- So sorry.
- Class Dismissed!
In this particular case, the judge was willing to give an extension. But that's not fair to the opposition, as why would they want to (essentially) reopen a case that they had just won by default.
And in fact, why anyone would ever want to concede anything ever (even the smallest little quibble) to the opposition is beyond me.
If Justice were involved, maybe. But this case is not about Justice. It is about Money... and never the twain shall meet.
Reading between the lines (and here, let me just say that this entire Judging the Judges project is an exercise in reading between the lines), Troy Lambert sued Nutraceutical Corporation on some Marketing Technicality. {It may have been more than a technicality. What do I know.} And he (or this case) was Certified as a Class.
Good for Troy Lambert.
Bad for Nutraceutical.
So subsequently, when the Class was Decertified this was a boon to Nutraceutical (or it was simply Justice, I suppose it depends which side one is on). But not only was Troy Lambert hurt (and his lawyers, who in my opinion are the chief beneficiaries of Class Action Suits), but all members of the Class lost standing.
And likely (if no one had a back-up claim waiting in the wings), hundreds (if not hundreds of millions) of 'similarly situation consumers' will now lose by default.
So, all Members of a Class suffer because of (what could amount to) a single Lawyer's clerical error.
Justice!
Ultimately, I believe a very good defence against Class Action Suits (if one's dastardly behaviour were never discovered) would be to preemptively file Class Action Suits; and then, pursue the claim ineffectively; thereby, barring any future litigants from fighting the The Good Fight.