Defendants fighting class actions in the Seventh Circuit may
have one less tool in their arsenal following the recent ruling in
Chapman v. First Index, Inc., No. 14-2773, 2015 WL 4652878
(7th Cir. Aug. 6, 2015) [
here], a putative class action arising from allegedly illegal
junk faxes. Though not a workplace class action decision,
Chapman is important for any employer facing high-stakes
litigation.
Until Chapman (authored by Judge Easterbrook joined by
Circuit Judges Posner, and Manion), prevailing case law in the
Seventh Circuit held that when a plaintiff received an offer of
judgment for full relief requested, the claim became moot. This had
particular salience in the class action context where mooting the
claim of a would-be class representative often served to head off
the specter of a larger case. Though plaintiffs typically avoided
this by filing a "placeholder" motion for class
certification, the tool was still a valuable one in the proper
circumstances.
