Martin Flumenbaum and Brad S. Karp
When it comes to class action certification, named plaintiffs suing on behalf of out-of-state class members face numerous challenges. But after last month’s Second Circuit decision, by Judges John M. Walker Jr., Gerard Lynch and Denny Chin, in Langan v. Johnson & Johnson, No. 17-1605, 2018 WL 3542624 (2d Cir. 2018), having standing to sue on behalf of unnamed class members with out-of-state claims is no longer one of them.
For several years now, district courts in the Second Circuit have split on whether named plaintiffs must establish Article III standing for out-of-state claims asserted by nonparty class members from different states. To clear up the confusion, the Second Circuit has now “made explicit” what it had implied in prior cases: for purposes of class action certification, named plaintiffs only need standing for their own claims.
