District Court Reinstates Class Certification Order In Wage Suppression Case; Rules Comcast Does Not Apply

On March 7, 2014, Judge Gerald Rosen of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan issued anopinion and order fully reinstating his September 13, 2013, order granting the plaintiffs’ motion for class certification inCason-Merenda v. VHS of Michigan, Inc., Case No. 06-15601, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 29447 (E.D. Mich. Mar. 7, 2014). The September 13 order certified a class of over 20,000 registered nurses (“RNs”) in this workplace antitrust case alleging that hospitals in the Detroit Metropolitan Area (“DMA”) conspired to suppress nurse wages. The lone non-settling defendant petitioned to appeal that decision pursuant to FRCP 23(f). Although the Sixth Circuit denied the petition, it vacated the class certification decision and ordered the District Court to reconsider the motion in light of the Supreme Court’s decision in Comcast Corp. v. Behrend, 133 S.Ct. 1426 (2013). The District Court held that Comcast did not apply because the differing damage theories in this case were mutually exclusive; and by contrast the differing damage theories in Comcast were complementary. Accordingly, the Court ruled that it was unnecessary for plaintiffs to demonstrate at the class certification stage which liability theory caused the damages asserted.

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