Dukes v. Wal-Mart: Re-filed as California Class Action

The U.S. Supreme Court’s Dukes v. Wal-Mart decision reversed certification of a class of approximately 1.5 million current and former Wal-Mart employees, partly on grounds that litigating the claims of a class so large would be unwieldy.  See Dukes v. Wal-Mart, 131 S. Ct. 2541, 2555-56 (2011) (“Even if [statistical proof] established (as it does not) a pay or promotion pattern that differs from the nationwide figures or the regional figures in all of Wal-Mart’s 3,400 stores, that would still not demonstrate that commonality of issue exists.”).  Now, despite that ruling, the California-based plaintiffs have filed a fourth amended complaint, which alleges sex discrimination against Wal-Mart, but only on behalf of a putative class of California employees.  See Plaintiffs’ Fourth Amended Complaint, Dukes v. Wal-Mart, No. 3:01-cv-02252 (N.D. Cal. October 27, 2011) (available here).  The named plaintiffs seek to represent approximately 90,000 prospective class members.  Id. at ¶¶ 15-17.

Still captioned Dukes v. Wal-Mart, the newly filed action could become a model for additional, regional lawsuits against Wal-Mart.  The plaintiffs’ attorneys in the California action have indicated their intention to file similar class actions in other states.  This suggests a potential new trend in class actions, marked by narrower class definitions more conducive to identifiable and answerable common questions.  This could also pave the way for more targeted “mass actions” that disaggregate class actions into simultaneously pending individual actions.