United States Second Circuit

In antitrust action alleging price fixing in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act, denial of plaintiffs' motion for class certification is reversed where: 1) although the plaintiffs do not fall within the definition of the class as set forth in the complaint, as assignees of class members who brought the suit, they are not categorically excluded from acting as class representatives; and 2) the district court erred with respect to the basis on which it concluded that individual questions predominate over common ones.

Appellate Information

• Decided 09/11/2007
• Published 09/11/2007

Judges

• SACK, Circuit Judge:, Before:  SACK, B.D. PARKER, and HALL, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Second Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Roger W. Kirby, Kirby McInerney & Squire LLP (Randall K. Berger, Henry P. Monaghan, of counsel), New York, NY, for Plaintiffs-Appellants.


• For Appellees:
  
• Robert F. Wise, Jr., Davis Polk & Wardwell (Edmund Polubinski III, Christopher Withers, Kavita Kumar, of counsel), New York, NY, for Defendant-Appellee Morgan Stanley (sued as Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co.)., James B. Weidner, Clifford Chance US LLP (Jon R. Roelke, Jeffrey H. Drichta, of counsel), New York, NY, for Defendants-Appellees Merrill Lynch, Pierce Fenner & Smith Incorporated, and Merrill Lynch & Co., Gandolfo V. DiBlasi, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP (Steven L. Holley, Penny Shane, David Rein, of counsel), New York, NY, for Defendant-Appellee Goldman, Sachs & Co. (sued as The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.)., Robert B. McCaw, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP (Ali M. Stoeppelwerth, Fraser L. Hunter, Jr., of counsel), New York, NY, for Defendant-Appellee Citigroup Global Markets, Inc. (sued as Salomon Smith Barney, Inc.)., Jay B. Kasner, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP (Shepard Goldfein, Gary A. MacDonald, of counsel), New York, NY, for Defendants-Appellees CIBC World Markets Corp. (sued as CIBC Oppenheimer Corp.), ABN AMRO Inc. (as successor-in-interest to ING Barings LLC) and Cowen and Company, LLC (f/k/a SG Cowen & Co., LLC and SG Cowen Securities Corp.;   sued as Cowen & Co.)., Gregory A. Markel, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP (Ronit Setton, Amanda Kosowsky, of counsel), New York, NY, for Defendants-Appellees Banc of America Securities LLC (sued as NationsBanc Montgomery Securities) and Robertson Stephens, Inc. (sued as BancBoston Robertson, Stephens & Company)., Bradley J. Butwin, O'Melveny & Myers LLP, New York, NY, for Defendants-Appellees UBS Securities LLC f/k/a UBS Warburg, LLC (sued as UBS Warburg LLC), J.C. Bradford & Co. and UBS Financial Services Inc. f/k/a UBS PaineWebber Inc. (sued as Paine Webber Group, Inc.)., A. Robert Pietrzak, Sidley Austin LLP (Joel M. Mitnick, Benjamin R. Nagin, of counsel), New York, NY, for Defendant-Appellee Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc., Thomas J. Kavaler, Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP (Elai Katz, of counsel), New York, NY, for Defendant-Appellee Prudential Equity Group, LLC (sued as Prudential Securities Incorporated)., Joseph Ingrisano, Kutak Rock LLP (Robert A. Jaffe, of counsel), Washington, D.C., for Defendant-Appellee A.G. Edwards & Sons, Inc., Charles E. Koob, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP (Joseph F. Tringali, of counsel), New York, NY, for Defendants-Appellees Lehman Brothers Inc. and J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. (sued as Chase Hambrecht & Quist)., Jeremy G. Epstein, Shearman & Sterling LLP (Kenneth M. Kramer, Richard F. Schwed, of counsel), New York, NY, for Defendants-Appellees Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, f/k/a Credit Suisse First Boston LLC (sued as Credit Suisse First Boston Corporation) and Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette, Inc., Jay N. Varon, Foley & Lardner LLP (Samuel J. Winer, Bryan B. House, of counsel), Washington, D.C., for Defendants-Appellees Everen Securities, Inc., Raymond James & Associates, Inc. and Piper Jaffray & Co. (sued as U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray Inc.)., Douglas A. Rappaport, DLA Piper US LLP (Lewis A. Noonberg, Philip Huynh, of counsel), New York, NY, for Defendant-Appellee Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc. (sued as BT Alex. Brown)., Bernard J. Garbutt III, Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP (Leza M. DiBella, of counsel), New York, NY, for Defendant-Appellee Jefferies & Company, Inc., Charles O. Monk II, Saul Ewing LLP (Joseph M. Fairbanks, of counsel), Baltimore, MD, for Defendant-Appellee Legg Mason Wood Walker, Inc., David Radlauer, Jones, Walker, Waechter, Poitevent, Carrere & Denegre, L.L.P. (Mark A. Cunningham, of counsel), New Orleans, LA, for Defendant-Appellee Johnson Rice & Company., L. Norton Cutler, Perkins Coie, LLP, Denver, CO, for Defendant-Appellee Hanifen Imhoff Inc.