Rah-Nita Boykin et al. v. The Procter & Gamble Company

Summary

The United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio granted The Procter & Gamble Company's motion to bifurcate discovery concerning class certification from merits discovery in a putative class action involving allegedly leaking Febreze Clips products. The court applied factors of expediency, economy, and severability, and ordered the parties to meet and confer and file an amended Rule 26(f) report within 21 days.

Holdings

1. A district court may bifurcate class-certification discovery from merits discovery when, in the court's discretion, bifurcation is supported by expediency and economy and class-certification and merits discovery are sufficiently severable.
2. Merits issues may be considered during class certification only to the extent they are relevant to determining whether Rule 23 prerequisites are satisfied; class certification does not authorize a free-ranging merits inquiry.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the court should bifurcate discovery concerning class certification from discovery concerning the merits.
2. Whether the expediency, economy, and severability considerations supported bifurcation despite some possible overlap between class-certification and merits discovery.

Disposition

other