Decision of Interest on Class Action Settlements

Howard Bashman at How Appealing reports on this week’s Third Circuit decision in Ehrheart v. Verizon Wireless. In a 2-1 decision, the court held that the class settlement agreement was enforceable notwithstanding the passage of a federal statute that retroactively eliminated the plaintiffs’ claims. As the majority explained:

“The parties do not dispute on appeal (nor did they before the District Court) that the Clarification Act eliminated the Appellants’ cause of action or that the Act retroactively encompasses the Appellants’ claims. The question on appeal, therefore, is not whether the Clarification Act, enacted earlier, would have eliminated Appellants’ underlying claims, but rather whether the Act moots the settlement agreement the parties executed while that legislation was pending in Congress. We conclude that it does not.”

--A