Mazzei v. The Money Store

(1) Whether the Seventh Amendment and/or the Rules Enabling Act are violated when " on a Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23 motion to decertify a class after the jury has reached a verdict in the class's favor " the courts below apply a procedure which: (i) imposes a post-verdict burden on the class to again satisfy FRCP 23's prerequisites by a preponderance of the evidence; and (ii) allows the trial court to reweigh the trial evidence and rule on a merits issue decided upon by the jury in the class's favor, disregarding the standards imposed under FRCP 50; and (iii) applies a deferential abuse of discretion standard of appellate review to a trial court's post-verdict decision to decertify the prevailing class; and (2) whether decertification of a prevailing class conflicts with this court's decisions addressing FRCP 23 in Amgen Inc. v. Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds and Tyson Foods, Inc. v. Bouaphakeo, where the trial court's decertification is based on its disagreement with the jury's determination on an issue going to the merits of the class claim.