The Sixth Circuits Rejects The "Juridical Link" Test For Class Actions

In Fox v. Saginaw County (No. 22-1265/1272), the Sixth Circuit rejected a class action where multiple defendants have identical policies, but the named plaintiff was only injured by one defendant. Until recently, Michigan law permitted counties to obtain complete ownership of a property during a tax foreclosure, even if the value of the property far exceeds the taxes owed. So enterprising attorneys filed a class action against twenty-seven Michigan counties under the auspices of the "juridical link" doctrine, but only presented one named plaintiff—who had only been injured by one county.

Don't feel bad if you've never heard of this doctrine. Proposed (but not applied) by the Ninth Circuit in the early 1970s, it allows class representative may sue multiple defendants, regardless of any link to the named plaintiff, if the defendants' conduct was "linked" to the same contract or state law. Its high point was Payton v. County of Kane, 308 F.3d 673, 678–80 (7th Cir.