Dunn, et al. v. Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company, et al.
Split Score
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Case Summary
Disposition
Reversed in Part
Consumers who bought Natural American Spirit cigarettes challenged the district court’s mixed class-certification ruling. The Tenth Circuit held that the plaintiffs’ damages model actually matched their liability theory, so the court reversed the denial of certification for the “safer-cigarette” classes and one Washington unjust-enrichment class, but it affirmed certification of the menthol classes and most other denials. The case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with these holdings.
Circuit Split Identified
Legal Issue
Whether Rule 23 requires administrative feasibility (the ability to reliably identify class members) as an antecedent prerequisite to class certification (ascertainability) or instead treats it only as one manageability factor under Rule 23(b)(3)(D).
Circuit Positions
Administrative feasibility is a mandatory prerequisite to class certification (heightened ascertainability requirement).
Administrative feasibility is not a prerequisite; it is considered only under the manageability factor of Rule 23(b)(3)(D).
Conflict Summary
The Third Circuit treats administrative feasibility as an independent, mandatory prerequisite that a class proponent must satisfy before certification, whereas most other circuits—including the Tenth Circuit in this opinion—treat administrative feasibility merely as one of several manageability considerations that courts should weigh under Rule 23(b)(3) and not a stand-alone bar to certification.