United States Eighth Circuit

In products liability litigation concerning the Silzone prosthetic heart valve, certification of a class of plaintiffs pursuant to Fed. Civ. Pro. Rule 23(b)(3) is reversed and remanded where: 1) claims of fraud and misrepresentation were unsuitable for a class action as the record evinced material variations in representations and manner of reliance which required individual inquiries; 2) the record showed that individual issues would predominate the remedial phase of the proposed class action; and 3) the district court did not limit its class certification to specific issues that may be amenable to class-wide resolution.

Appellate Information

• Decided 04/09/2008
• Published 04/09/2008

Judges

• COLLOTON, Circuit Judge., Before RILEY, MELLOY, and COLLOTON, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Eighth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• James C. Martin, argued, Oakland, CA (Steven M. Kohn and Steven J. Boranian, Oakland, CA, and Tracy J. Van Steenburgh and Eric J. Magnuson, Minneapolis, MN, on the brief), for Appellant., Hugh F. Young, Jr., Reston, VA, and Jordan B. Cherrick and Kirsten M. Ahmad, St. Louis, MO, on the brief, for Amicus Curiae Product Liability Advisory Council., Clifford M. Greene, Pamela L. Vander Wiel, and John W. Ursu, Minneapolis, MN, on the brief, for Amicus Curiae the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce., John S. Garry, AAG, on the brief, St. Paul MN, for Amicus Curiae State of Minnesota., Bruce Vignery and Michael Schuster, on the brief, Washington, DC, for Amicus Curiae AARP.


• For Appellees:
  
• David C. Frederick, argued, Washington, DC (Steven E. Angstreich, Michael Coren, and Carolyn C. Lindheim, Philadelphia, PA, Scott H. Angstreich and Daniel W. Sigelman, Washington, DC, J. Gordon Rudd, Jr. and David M. Cialkowski, Minneapolis, MN, James T. Capretz, Newport Beach, CA, and Joe D. Jacobson, Clayton, MO, on the brief), for appellees.