How to Kill a Copycat Class Action

If class certification is denied, can a plaintiff’s lawyer simply find a new representative plaintiff, file a new class action, and take another stab at class certification? 

This was the situation WinCo Foods faced after defeating class certification in Gales v. WinCo Foods [here], an assistant manager misclassification class action filed in the Northern District of California.  Plaintiff’s counsel found new plaintiffs — two individuals who had submitted declarations in the prior class action — and filed a virtually identical class action lawsuit in California state court alleging the same claims, on behalf of virtually the same class. 

In the first decision of its kind in the Ninth Circuit, Judge Charles Breyer of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California granted Seyfarth’s early motion to deny class certification under Rule 23 (before any discovery) [here] thereby killing the copycat class action. 

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