United States Tenth Circuit

In a class action against the Oklahoma Department of Human Services claiming that the department's agency-wide foster care policies and practices exposed all class members to an impermissible risk of harm, the district court's order certifying a class is affirmed where: 1) plaintiffs presented more than conclusory statements that defendants' agency-wide monitoring policies and practices, or lack thereof, created a risk of harm shared by the entire class; 2) due to the common risk of harm and the common underlying legal theory for asserting that risk, the district court acted within its discretion to find that typicality was satisfied; and 3) the injunction sought by plaintiffs applied to the proposed class as a whole without requiring differentiation between class members.

Appellate Information

• Decided 02/08/2010
• Published 02/08/2010

Judges

• BALDOCK, Circuit Judge., Before HOLMES, BALDOCK, and SILER, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Tenth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Marsha Robinson Lowry, Children's Rights, New York, N.Y. (Frederic Dorwart and Paul DeMuro, Frederic Dorwart Lawyers, Tulsa, OK, and R. Thomas Seymour and Scott A. Graham, Seymour & Graham, LLP, Tulsa OK, and Bruce W. Day and Joe E. Edwards, Day, Edwards, Propester & Christensen, Oklahoma City, OK, with her on the briefs) for Plaintiffs-Appellants.


• For Appellees:
  
• Donald M. Bingham, Riggs, Abney, Neal, Turpen, Orbison & Lewis, P .C., Tulsa, OK (Holly M. Hillerman, Riggs, Abney, Neal, Turpen, Orbison & Lewis, P.C., Tulsa, OK, and Robert A. Nance and Melvin C. Hall, Riggs, Abney, Neal, Turpen, Orbison & Lewis, P.C., Oklahoma City, OK, with him on the briefs) for Defendants-Appellees.