Rebecca Mullis attended an online program for Medical Diagnostic
Sonography through Mountain State University. The program required
her to attend a clinical externship to graduate, but there were no
externship sites within a three-hour drive for her. So she sued the
university on behalf of students like herself, whom she was sure
(or her lawyers were) numbered in the hundreds.
In its opinion denying certification in Mullis v. Mountain
State Univ., Inc., No. 5:12–3158, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS
40686 (S.D. W. Va. Mar. 27, 2014), the court disagreed. Its
primary issue was that she had not offered any real evidence to
support her guesses about numerosity.
Plaintiff's mere speculation does not meet her burden, and
she has provided no meaningful evidence that refutes the
evidentiary support for a much more modest estimation of the size
of the proposed class. Conclusory and speculative allegations as to
the size of the class are insufficient to establish numerosity.
