No emptiness, no commonality

A putative class action failed for lack of commonality: “Every member of the putative class received the same allegedly threatening letter from Medicredit. But the FDCPA penalizes empty threats, not all threats. So the letter alone is insufficient to certify a class. As in Dukes, there is no ‘glue’ here ‘holding the alleged reasons for all those [letters] together’—namely, evidence of a uniform intention by Seton regarding suit. So it is likewise ‘impossible to say that examination of all the class members’ claims for relief will produce a common answer to the crucial question’ why was I threatened.” Flecha v. Medicredit, Inc., No. 18-50551 (Jan. 8, 2020) (citations omitted, emphasis in original).