United States Second Circuit

In a class action by persons allegedly arrested pursuant to an unconstitutional New York anti-begging statute, the district court's class certification order is affirmed in part where the citywide plaintiff class met the requirements of Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 23(a) and 23(b)(3). However, the order is reversed in part where the district court erred in certifying a statewide defendant class because the defendant class representatives did not meet the adequacy and typicality requirements of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(a), and the district court also erred in certifying a statewide plaintiff class because the certification of this class was contingent on the bilateral certification of both a statewide plaintiff and a statewide defendant class.

Appellate Information

• Argued 12/19/2008
• Decided 06/24/2010
• Published 06/24/2010

Judges

• SACK, Circuit Judge:, Before SACK and KATZMANN, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Second Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Fay NG (Pamela Seider Dolgow, Rachel Seligman, Linda Donahue, on the brief), for Michael A. Cardozo, Corporation Counsel of the City of New York, New York, NY, for Defendants-Appellants., Matthew D. Brinckerhoff, Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady LLP, New York, N.Y. (Katherine R. Rosenfeld, Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady LLP, New York, NY, J. McGregor Smyth, Jr., The Bronx Defenders, Bronx, NY, on the brief), for Plaintiff-Appellee., Monica Wagner (Barbara D. Underwood, Benjamin N. Gutman, on the brief), for Andrew M. Cuomo, Attorney General of the State of New York, for Amicus Curiae State of New York, in support of Defendants-Appellants., Anthony J. Servino, Steven A. Bender, for James A. Murphy III, District Attorney of Saratoga County, New York (on submission), for Amicus Curiae New York State District Attorneys Association, in support of Defendants-Appellants., Dennis J. Saffran, for Lorna B. Goodman, County Attorney of Nassau County, New York (on submission), for Amicus Curiae Nassau County, in support of Defendants-Appellants., Christopher A. Jeffreys, for Christine Malafi, County Attorney of Suffolk County, New York (on submission), for Amicus Curiae Suffolk County, in support of Defendants-Appellants., Max Minzer, Benjamin Cardozo School of Law, New York, NY, Kenneth E. Aldous, Proskauer Rose LLP, New York, N.Y. (on submission), for Amici Curiae Law Professors who Study Federal Civil Procedure and Class Actions, in support of Plaintiff-Appellee., William M. Brooks, Touro College, Central Islip, NY, for Amicus Curiae Mental Disability Law Clinic, in support of Plaintiff-Appellee.