Court Denies Class Cert. Request in Pet Treat Litigation

Finding significant differences among the state laws applicable to a putative
nationwide class action alleging injury to pets and economic damages from
the purchase of dog treats containing chicken jerky from China, a federal
court in California has denied the plaintiff’s request for class certification. Holt
v. Globalinx Pet LLC, No. 13-0041 (C.D. Cal., S. Div., order entered
January 30, 2014). According to the court, “[w]hile the Plaintiff maintains
that the laws of California should apply to the proposed nationwide classes,
the Defendants have catalogued a series of material differences between
the consumer protection laws of several states and those of California, and
crucially, this Court has already performed a case-specific conflict of law
analysis and determined that Texas law would govern four of the named
Plaintiff’s causes of action.” Agreeing that these differences were material, the
court concluded that the proposed classes “do not meet the predominance
and superiority requirements of Rule 23 (b)(3).”

Issue 511