Reply #11: "A huge win for the plaintiffs, and a tremendous loss for 'too big to fail' Wal-Mart." [View All]

[LaPera]

Paul Secunda, an associate professor of law at Marquette University Law School, called the ruling.

"Wal-Mart has potentially huge liability," he said. Given the number of employees involved and many years of pay at issue "the amount of liability can be many billions of dollars."

Wal-Mart had argued that it would be too unwieldy to bring the case forward as a class action -- a premise the appeals court dismissed.

"Although the size of this class action is large, mere size does not render a case unmanageable," the court wrote.

Seligman called Wal-Mart's argument "a version of too big to fail."