A Benefytt Or A Curse: Ninth Circuit Holds That Bristol-Myers Does Not Apply Before Class Certification

• Published date: 19 August 2021
• Subject Matter: Consumer Protection, Litigation, Mediation & Arbitration, Class Actions, Dodd-Frank, Consumer Protection Act, Civil Law
• Law Firm: Jenner & Block
• Author: Alexander Smith

In 2017, the Supreme Court held in Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. v. Superior Court, 137 S. Ct. 1773 (2017), that a defendant in a mass tort action is not subject to specific personal jurisdiction as to the claims of non-resident plaintiffs whose injuries lack a sufficient connection to the forum state. The Court did not decide, however, whether its holding applied to nationwide class actions. And in the four years following Bristol-Myers, district courts in the Ninth Circuit have reached highly divergent results:

• Some district courts have "agree[d] that Bristol-Myers Squibb applies in the nationwide class action context" and have dismissed claims brought on behalf of putative nationwide classes, reasoning that "a state cannot assert specific personal jurisdiction for the claims of unnamed class members that would not be subject to specific personal jurisdiction if asserted as individual claims." Carpenter v. PetSmart, Inc., 441 F Supp. 3d 1028, 1035 (S.D. Cal. 2020); see also e.g., Wenokur v. AXA Equitable Life Ins. Co. No. 17-165, 2017 WL 4357916, at *4 (D. Ariz. Oct. 2, 2017) ("The Court notes that it lacks personal jurisdiction over the claims of putative class members with no connection to Arizona and therefore would not be able to certify a nationwide class.").

• Other district courts have declined to extend Bristol-Myers to nationwide class actions. Some have reasoned that Bristol-Myers likely does not apply in federal courts at all, or at least not in cases arising under federal law. See, e.g., Pascal v. Concentra Inc., No. 19-2559, 2019 WL 3934936, at *5 (N.D. Cal. Aug. 20 2019) ("Bristol-Myers does not apply in this case because Plaintiff asserts his claim in a federal court and under federal law."); Massaro v. Beyond Meat Inc., No. 20-510, 2021 WL 948805, at *11 (S.D. Cal. Mar. 12, 2021) (similar). Others have distinguished Bristol-Myers on the basis that it involved a mass tort claim and have "decline[d] to extend Bristol-Myers to the class action context," reasoning that doing so would "radically alter the existing universe of class action law." Sotomayor v. Bank of Am., N.A., 377 F. Supp. 3d 1034, 1038 (C.D. Cal. 2019); see also, e.g., Fitzhenry-Russell v. Dr. Pepper Snapple Grp., Inc., No. 17-564, 2017 WL 4224723, at *5 (N.D. Cal. Sept. 22, 2017) ("[T]he Supreme Court did not extend its reasoning to bar the nonresident plaintiffs' claims here, and Bristol-Myers is meaningfully distinguishable based on that case concerning a mass...