The Eleventh Circuit in Walthour v. Chipio Windshield Repair, LLC, No. 13-11309 (11th Cir. March 21, 2014) recently joined the Second, Fourth, Fifth, and Eighth Circuits in upholding class arbitration waivers in a Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) action. Plaintiffs in Walthour argued that the statutory right to file a collective action under the FLSA cannot be waived, as it is a substantive right. Plaintiffs pointed to the statute’s text, legislative history and purposes to support their position that the FLSA’s right to collective action trumps the Federal ...
Defining the power of arbitration agreements has been a hot topic at the federal and state levels for the past couple of years. In a recent post, we discussed two North Carolina Court of Appeals decisions that validated the reach of the U.S. Supreme Court’s AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion, 131 S.Ct. 1740 (2011) and Italian Colors v. American Express 133 S.Ct. 2304 (2013) decisions to enforce class arbitration waivers in the State. In one of those cases, Torrence v. Nationwide Budget Finance, et. al., No. 05- CVS 447 (N.C. Ct. App. Feb. 4, 2014), a question also was raised regarding the ...
On February 24, 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari in three “moldy” washing machine class actions, which presented questions regarding Fed. R. Civ. P. 23’s commonality and predominance requirements as clarified by Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes, 131 S. Ct. 2541 (2011) and Comcast Corp. v. Behrend, 133 S. Ct. 1426 (2013). In a previous post, we discussed in detail the Sixth Circuit’s rationale for upholding the trial court’s certification of a liability class in Whirlpool Corp. v. Glazer, et al (No. 13-431), despite the fact that there were four different ...
The North Carolina Court of Appeals recently declared the enforceability of class arbitration waivers despite the North Carolina Supreme Court’s previous decision in Tillman v. Commercial Credit Loans, Inc., 362 N.C. 93, 655 S.E.2d 362 (2008), which invalidated an arbitration agreement based, in part, on a class arbitration waiver. In companion cases, Torrence v. Nationwide Budget Finance, et. al., No. 05- CVS 447 (N.C. Ct. App. Feb. 4, 2014) and Knox v. First Southern Cash Advance, et.al., No. 05-CVS-445 (N.C. Ct. App. Feb. 4, 2014)**, plaintiffs had secured class ...
About MVA Litigation
Companies are operating in an increasingly globalized and regulated business environment, facing ever-changing and complicated litigation and regulatory challenges. We provide cutting-edge information regarding developments in federal, North Carolina State, and international litigation, as well as in arbitration, regulatory enforcement, and related business practices.