Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Wal-Mart Bias Case Appeal

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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/07/business/07bizcourt.html

Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Wal-Mart Bias Case Appeal
By ADAM LIPTAK

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear an appeal in the biggest employment discrimination case in the nation’s history, one claiming that Wal-Mart discriminated against hundreds of thousands of women in pay and promotion. The lawsuit seeks back pay that could amount to billions of dollars.

The question before the court is not whether there was discrimination but rather whether the claims by the individual employees may be combined as a class action. The court’s decision on that issue will almost certainly affect all sorts of class-action suits, including ones asserting antitrust, securities and, products liability and other claims. If nothing else, many pending class actions will slow or stop while litigants and courts await the decision in the case.

Brad Seligman, the main lawyer for the plaintiffs, said in a telephone interview after the court decision: “Wal-Mart has thrown up an extraordinarily broad number of issues, many of which, if the court seriously entertained, could very severely undermine many civil rights class actions. We welcome the court’s review of this limited issue, and we’re confident that the core of our action will go forward.”

In their brief urging the justices to deny review, the plaintiffs had said Wal-Mart’s objection to class-action treatment boiled down to the enormous size of the class. “Petitioner returns repeatedly to the refrain that the certified class is very large, a fact that is indisputably true but legally irrelevant,” the brief said. “The class is large because Wal-Mart is the nation’s largest employer and manages its operations and employment practices in a highly uniform and centralized manner.”...

[SheilaT]

1. Very good.

I have a friend from high school who is a corporate attorney for WalMart, and I have refrained from asking her why she is not a plaintiff in that suit. She has often complained over the years about males being paid more, or promoted over her. And this is not a woman of right-wing sentiments, either. Whenever we discuss political things she's as far out there on the left as I am.