Class Action and Mass Torts

Class actions come in many varieties involving consumer and commercial disputes of all sorts. New Mexico's judiciary is just beginning to provide guidance on its interpretation of New Mexico's class action rules, and Modrall Sperling lawyers ride the crest of the wave of developments in this area of law. The firm has experience with state-wide and nation-wide claims, including direct and indirect purchaser antitrust actions, natural resources royalty disputes, and numerous product, insurance, securities and consumer claims.

A sample of class action cases handled by the firm is as follows:

• Shareholders' derivative securities litigation. Modrall Sperling represented a local development company in four shareholders suits brought by a number of different groups of plaintiffs' lawyers challenging the company's $254 million merger with a California development company.

• "Modal" insurance premium and installment fee litigation. Modrall Sperling acts as counsel for insurers in nine separate class actions, all pled as nationwide class actions. The cases relate to insurers' practices of offering insureds the option of paying their insurance premiums more frequently than annually at an increased cost. The plaintiffs claim that the insurance companies should disclose "annual percentage rates" and "finance charges" in connection with the policies, even though the insureds may discontinue making payments without an obligation to pay for the remainder of the year in question. Modrall Sperling acts both as primary and local counsel in these cases.

• Indirect purchaser antitrust litigation. Under the federal antitrust laws, claims alleging price-fixing may be asserted only by persons or entities that purchase directly from the alleged infringer. This doctrine was articulated by the United States Supreme Court in Illinois Brick v. Illinois, 431 U.S. 720 (1977). In response, a number of states, including New Mexico, have adopted so-called "Illinois Brick Repealer Statutes". These statutes provide standing to indirect purchasers to make the same sorts of claims that might be made by direct purchasers. Litigation utilizing New Mexico's Illinois Brick repealer statute has blossomed since the late 1990s, when the firm acted as counsel in its first of such claims.

• Fair Debt Collection Practices Act litigation. The firm has handled three consumer class cases alleging unfair debt collection practices in New Mexico, Texas, Utah and Washington.

• Prescription drug and medical device class and individual litigation. The firm has represented manufacturers of spinal implant systems (rods and pedicle screws), latex gloves, diet drugs, cholesterol-lowering drugs, and gastro-esophogeal reflux medications in individual and class action cases in New Mexico state and federal courts, as well as in federal multidistrict litigation. These cases typically involve claims under New Mexico common law for products liability, including, more recently, claims for medical monitoring to watch for future symptoms (the latter are typically pled as class actions).

• Royalty litigation. The firm has defended and is defending natural gas producers against claims of underpayment of royalty. We recently tried in the State Court in Durango, Colorado, as lead counsel, a class action royalty case involving over 3,000 class members. We defeated class certification and obtained summary judgment for our client in a recent royalty case in State Court in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and defended a class action in federal court involving a class of several thousand royalty payees, which was settled.

• Civil Rights Litigation. We defeated class certification in a putative class action case against the operators of Coronado Center, a large regional shopping center in Albuquerque, brought by individuals alleging civil rights violations.

Class Action and Mass Torts Lawyers

• Charles Armgardt
• Angelo Artuso
• Martha Brown
• Stuart Butzier
• John Cooney
• Donald DeCandia
• Kenneth Harrigan
• Timothy Holm
• Erin Langenwalter
• Lisa Mann
• Megan Muirhead
• Douglas Schneebeck
• R. E. Thompson

Class Action and Mass Torts Articles

• » Indirect Purchaser Antitrust Claims On The Rise In New Mexico (2003/05/19)