Will The California Court of Appeal Follow Dukes And Reject "Trial By Formula" In Class Action Trials?

On November 10, 2011 the California Court of Appeal, First District, heard oral argument in Duran, et al. v. U.S. Bank.  While perhaps overshadowed by the excitement surrounding the oral argument before the California Supreme Court in Brinker Rest. Corp. v. Superior Court, just two days prior, the Duran case presents extremely important issues relating to how class action trials are conducted in California.  In a matter of first impression, the Court of Appeal is considering whether class action plaintiffs may use statistical sampling and representative evidence to establish liability on a class-wide basis.

Plaintiffs filed the misclassification case in Alameda County Superior Court on December 26, 2001.  After class certification, Judge Robert Freedman granted Plaintiffs’ motion for summary adjudication on the Bank’s defenses of administrative exemption and commission sales exemption.  The case then went to a bench trial on the Bank’s remaining defense under the outside sales exemption.

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