United States First Circuit

In a multi-district consumer class action alleging conspiracy by automobile manufacturers to illegally block lower-priced imports from Canada to inflate the price of new cars sold in America, district court's certifications of: 1) a nationwide class seeking injunctive relief under section 16 of the Clayton Act and Rule 23(b)(2) is reversed and remanded where there was a lack of a live controversy between parties to justify an injunctive remedy and no federal jurisdiction under the Clayton Act; and 2) a class seeking damages under the antitrust and consumer protection laws of twenty states and Rule 23(b)(3) is vacated and remanded where, at the time of class certification, more work remained to be done in the building of plaintiffs' damages model and theory of impact.

Appellate Information

• Decided 03/28/2008
• Published 03/28/2008

Judges

• LYNCH, Circuit Judge., Before TORRUELLA, Circuit Judge, SELYA, Senior Circuit Judge, and LYNCH, Circuit Judge.

Court

• United States First Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• William J. Kayatta, Jr. with whom Clifford H. Ruprecht, Pierce Atwood LLP, James C. Egan, Jr., Kirsten A. Lockhart, Carrie M. Anderson, and Weil Gotshal & Manges were on brief for appellants Chrysler LLC, Chrysler Motors LLC, Chrysler Canada Inc., and Mercedes-Benz USA LLC., Richard C. Godfrey, P.C., David J. Zott, P.C., Daniel E. Laytin, and Kirkland & Ellis LLP were on brief for appellants General Motors Corp. and General Motors of Canada, Ltd., Margaret M. Zwisler, William R. Sherman, and Latham & Watkins LLP were on brief for appellants Ford Motor Company and Ford Motor Company of Canada, Ltd., John H. Rich III, Perkins Thompson, P.A., Robert A. Van Nest, Ragesh K. Tangri, Rachael E. Meny, Daniel Purcell, and Keker & Van Nest, LLP were on brief for appellants American Honda and Honda Canada Inc., Peter Sullivan, Joshua Lipton, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP, Harold J. Friedman, Laurence H. Leavitt, and Friedman Gaythwaite Wolf & Leavitt LLP were on brief for appellant Nissan North America, Inc.


• For Appellees:
  
• Joseph J. Tabacco, Jr. with whom Glen DeValerio, Peter A. Pease, Todd A. Seaver, Matthew D. Pearson, Berman DeValerio Pease Tabacco Burt & Pucillo, Michael M. Buchman, J. Douglas Richards, Pomerantz Haudek Block Grossman & Gross, LLP, Robert S. Frank, and Harvey & Frank were on brief for appellees.