YoPlus Class Certification Ruling Remanded to District Court

Finding that the class definition approved by the district court was inconsistent
with its analysis of the class certification requirements, the Eleventh
Circuit Court of Appeals has returned litigation over the purportedly
misleading digestive health claims for YoPlus yogurt to a district court in
Florida. Fitzpatrick v. General Mills, Inc., No. 10-11064 (11th Cir., decided
March 25, 2011). Additional information about the case appears in Issue 296
of this Update.

When it decided to grant the plaintiffs’ motion for class certification, the
district court apparently defined the class as “all persons who purchased
YoPlus in the State of Florida to obtain its claimed digestive health benefit.”
The defendant challenged this definition on the ground that it requires
individualized fact-finding, and the court had specifically determined that
common issues predominate over individualized issues.

According to the appellate court, the district court “conducted a detailed
analysis of the requirements necessary for a class action,” and its order was
“a scholarly work reflecting careful attention to the requirements of Federal
Rule of Civil Procedure 23, existing precedent and the factual background of
this matter.” Still, because the district court defined the class in such a way as
to take “into account individual reliance on the digestive health claims,” the
Eleventh Circuit found it confusing and inconsistent with the district court’s
analysis, with which it agreed. The court vacated the class certification ruling
and remanded the matter to the district court for further consideration.