In Friends of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Church v. FEMA, a nonprofit association challenged several acts of FEMA in dealing with a historic church property. The Court analyzed the association’s standing, beginning by noting that as a jurisdictional matter, the issue can be examined for the first time on appeal. Op. at 8. To establish standing, “[t]he plaintiff must show that he has sustained or is immediately in danger of sustaining some direct injury as the result of the challenged official conduct and the injury or threat of injury must be both real and immediate . . . ” Op. at 9. The Court found that the association lacked a sufficient “geographical nexus” as to FEMA’s activities in the Ninth Ward and did not suffer “concrete injury” from alleged deficiencies in FEMA’s review processes. Op. at 12. The case was remanded with instructions to dismiss for lack of standing.
In Young v. Merrill Lynch, the Court addressed a technical dispute under New York law about the appropriate deference to decisions of Merrill Lynch’s Compensation Committee. Judge DeMoss dissented from the per curiam opinion. Full text of both opinions here.
In Williams v. Homeland Insurance, a discretionary appeal accepted under the Class Action Fairness Act, the Court affirmed the denial of a motion to remand, concluding that the “local controversy” exception to CAFA jurisdiction had been satisfied. The opinion reminds that “[t]he parties moving for remand bear the burden of proof that they fall within an exception to CAFA jurisdiction.” Op. at 3. In this challenge to discounts made by a PPO program, the Court concluded that adding a claims administrator as a new party did not change the fact that “significant relief” was still sought from the in-state entity that operated the PPO network, thus satisfying that element of the local controversy exception. Op. at 6. The Court went on to state that “a class arbitration is not a class action,” and that as a result, a prior arbitration did not implicate the requirement of the exception that no other class action have been filed against a defendant in the previous three years. Op. at 7.
