United States Ninth Circuit

In an action seeking compensation for defendant's alleged denial of employees' meal breaks, denial of class certification is reversed where the district court abused its discretion when it assumed, for the purpose of Fed. R. Civ. P. 23 certification analysis and without any separate inquiry into the merits, that plaintiffs' legal theory would fail.

Appellate Information

• Argued 11/04/2009
• Decided 01/06/2010
• Published 01/06/2010

Judges

• Before THOMAS G. NELSON, JAY S. BYBEE, and MILAN D. SMITH, JR., Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Anne Richardson, Hadsell, Stormer, Keeny, Richardson & Renick, LLP, Pasadena, CA, for plaintiffs-appellants-appellees Raudel Covarrubias, David Simmons, and Stephen S. Swader, Sr., Robert A. Cantore, Gilbert & Sackman, Inc., Los Angeles, CA, for plaintiff-appellant-appellee United Steel, Paper & Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial & Service Workers International Union, AFL-CIO, CLC., Rex S. Heinke, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, LLP, Los Angeles, CA, for defendant-appellant-appellee ConocoPhillips Co.