Case Summaries

Class Actions

[05/30] McAdams v. Monier, Inc.
In case involving proposed class action under the Consumers Legal Remedies Act (CLRA) and the Unfair Competition Law (UCL) based on alleged failure to disclose that color composition of roof tiles would erode, court's refusal to certify a class is reversed where an "inference of common reliance"--as opposed to requiring a showing of "actual reliance"--may be applied to CLRA and UCL classes.

[05/23] Pastor v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co.
In a class action involving tens of thousands of small claims against an insurance company, denial of class certification is affirmed where the necessity of a separate evidentiary hearing for each class member's claim would remove the benefits of class-action treatment since the aggregate expense of the trial would outweigh the value of the small claims.

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Injury & Tort Law

[05/31] McLachlan v. New York Life Ins. Co.
In a state law negligence action brought by an individual suffering from kidney failure against an insurer arising from circumstances in which plaintiff submitted blood and urine samples to the insurer prior to the issuance of a policy, and the insurer only notified him of elevated levels of one chemical although the test revealed two, dismissal of the case is affirmed where the insurer neither owed a duty to disclose nor assumed such a duty.

[05/31] Hassan v. City of Minneapolis
In a suit raising federal civil rights and state law claims arising from an incident in which Minneapolis police officers shot and killed an individual walking down the middle of a street carrying a machete and a tire iron after he responded aggressively toward them, summary judgment for defendants is affirmed where: 1) viewing the facts in the light most favorable to plaintiff, the use of deadly force was not unreasonable and was not a violation of the Fourth Amendment; and 2) plaintiff's state law claims failed, as under Minnesota law defendants had official immunity because plaintiff did not show that their actions were a willful or malicious wrong.

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Remedies

[05/31] Taylor v. Westly
In an action brought by plaintiffs, whose securities were lost to escheat, seeking to enjoin the escheating of property without written notice calculated to be received by the owner, denial of plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction is reversed and remanded where: 1) contrary to the ruling below, plaintiffs had standing to pursue injunctive relief; and 2) plaintiffs were entitled to a preliminary injunction based on a combination of their probable success on the merits and the possibility of irreparable injury.

[05/31] Rossi v. Gemma
In an 18 U.S.C. section 1983 suit alleging that the Rhode Island Mechanics' Lien Law violated due process: 1) dismissal of claims for injunctive and declaratory relief is affirmed where abstention under the Younger doctrine was appropriate since federal courts should not interfere with ongoing state-court litigation; 2) dismissal of claims for monetary relief under section 1983 is vacated and remanded with orders to stay the proceedings where courts ordinarily may only stay actions for monetary relief under Younger; and 3) the court did not abuse its discretion in dismissing state law claims for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.

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