Class Action Isn’t “All Encompassing Action”

In re Jefferson Parish involved a mandamus petition about the interplay between a putative class action (“Ictech-Bendeck“) with a 500-plaintiff mass action (“Addison“). The Fifth Circuit denied relief, as the opinion’s introduction deftly summarizes:

… This mandamus proceeding arose because the defendants object to the district court’s scheduling of a small group of Addison plaintiffs for trial before Ictech-Bendeck will finish its class certification process, which the defendants have repeatedly delayed.

Petitioners ask us to stop the Addison trial and to order the district court to rule on class certification in Ictech-Bendeck before allowing any further proceedings in Addison. Petitioners raise the novel theory that under Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the filing of a putative class action bars any possible class members from reaching the merits of their own, separate suits until class certification proceedings conclude in the putative class action. …

… Rule 23 establishes a mechanism for plaintiffs to pursue their claims as a class. It does not cause the filing of a putative class action to universally estop all separate but related actions from proceeding to the merits until the class-certification process concludes in the putative class action, after years of motions practice.

No. 23-30243 (Aug. 24, 2023).