Sears, Roebuck and Co. v. Butler

Case Updates

The Supreme Court granted the petition for writ of certiorari. The Court vacated the judgment and remanded to the Seventh Circuit for further consideration in light of Comcast v. Behrend.

The U.S. Chamber urged the Supreme Court to review a decision by the Seventh Circuit, which certified a multi-state, breach-of-warranty class action in which class members were linked only by their purchases of different models of the same brand of washing machine. The Chamber argued in its amicus brief that the Court should grant the petition to correct the Seventh Circuit's unwise and unwarranted expansion of federal class action procedures. The Chamber pointed out that the Seventh Circuit's decision directly conflicts with the Supreme Court's precedents and instead of conducting the rigorous analysis that Rule 23 requires, created a new “efficiency” test for determining when common issues in a proposed class action predominate over individual ones. The Chamber warned that the decision, if not corrected, poses grave threats to businesses and consumers by encouraging class action abuse and authorizing class actions even in circumstances where consumers have suffered no cognizable injury.