Appellate Law

Class Members Lacked Standing

By D. Todd Smith

The Texas Supreme Court issued one opinion other than the new decision in Frank’s Casing with today’s orders.  In DaimlerChrysler Corp. v. Inman (No. 03-1189) (written by Justice Hecht, joined by Justices Wainwright, Brister, Medina, and Willett), the Court dismissed a putative class action for want of jurisdiction on the ground that the plaintiffs’ claims–which involved seat belt buckles that were allegedly too easy to unlatch unintentionally–were too speculative and hypothetical to confer standing.

Chief Justice Jefferson (joined by Justices O’Neill, Green, and Johnson) dissented on the ground that the majority “improperly equates standing with the merits of the plaintiffs? claim” in contravention of “fundamental tenets of the standing doctrine, our rules of procedure, and the statute governing interlocutory appeals.”

Full post as published by Texas Appellate Law Blog on February 01, 2008 (boomark / email).