{"id":835,"date":"2015-05-16T10:22:06","date_gmt":"2015-05-16T14:22:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fslawfirm.com\/blog\/?p=835"},"modified":"2015-05-16T10:22:06","modified_gmt":"2015-05-16T14:22:06","slug":"second-circuit-issues-great-ruling-regarding-rule-68-offers-of-judgment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fslawfirm.com\/blog\/2015\/05\/second-circuit-issues-great-ruling-regarding-rule-68-offers-of-judgment\/","title":{"rendered":"Second Circuit Issues Great Ruling Regarding Rule 68 Offers of Judgment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a recent decision, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit clarified a key question that is becoming more frequent in single plaintiff and class action litigation:\u00a0 whether a Rule 68 offer of judgment that is not accepted moots a plaintiff\u2019s individual claims to continue their case.\u00a0 A Rule 68 Offer of Judgment is a procedural tool that allows defendants to offer a plaintiff a specific amount of money (usually the maximum recovery allowed under a statute) to halt litigation.\u00a0 If a plaintiff rejects such an offer and moves forward, and does not ultimately obtain <em>at least <\/em>that amount offered, then they owe the defendant the \u201ccosts\u201d of the case from the date the offer of judgment was made.\u00a0 Defendants have been successful in other circuit courts throughout the country by using a rejected Rule 68 Offer of Judgment to dismiss cases, the logic being that a rejected Offer \u201cmoots\u201d any underlying controversy or case.<\/p>\n<p>In the case of <em>Tanasi v. New Alliance Bank, et al.<\/em>, the Second Circuit determined whether a class action may continue when a class action plaintiff rejects a Rule 68 Offer of Judgment for above his maximum <em>individual<\/em> recovery.\u00a0 In this case, the plaintiff filed a class action against the defendant companies for improper assessment of overdraft fees on his account.\u00a0 Nine days after the lawsuit was filed, before any motions for class certification, the defendants served him with a Rule 68 Offer of Judgment for $10,000, an amount above what he individually could recover under the law.\u00a0 The plaintiff rejected it by not accepting the offer within the time required, and continued the case.\u00a0 The defendants asked the District Court to dismiss the plaintiff\u2019s individual and class action claims, arguing that the rejected Offer of Judgment effectively \u201cmooted\u201d the entire action, including the claims of the class members.<\/p>\n<p>The District Court denied the defendants\u2019 motion to dismiss, and the issue was raised to the Second Circuit.\u00a0 The Second Circuit recognized that this issue is far from clear, and that many other circuit courts have come to differing conclusions.\u00a0 In sum, the Third, Fourth, Fifth, Seventh, Tenth, and Federal Circuit have all held that a Rule 68 Offer that gives <em>full relief<\/em> to an individual renders his case moot, meaning that there is no controversy for the federal court to decide (meaning it should be dismissed).\u00a0 In contrast are the Ninth and Eleventh Circuits, which have recently held that an unaccepted rule 68 Offer cannot make an individual plaintiff\u2019s claims moot because it is just that \u2013 unaccepted.<\/p>\n<p>The Second Circuit ruled consistently with the Ninth and Eleventh Circuits, and held that \u201ca rejected settlement offer under Rule 68, by itself, cannot render moot a case.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Court did state, however, that a district court <em>may<\/em> enter judgment where a plaintiff\u2019s \u201cobstinacy or madness prevents her from accepting a total victory,\u201d but this is in the district court\u2019s discretion, and had <em>not<\/em> happened in this specific case.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, the Court affirmed the District Court\u2019s decision to reject the defendant\u2019s motion to dismiss the class claims because the plaintiff\u2019s individual claims themselves were not made moot simply due to the unaccepted Rule 68 Offer.<\/p>\n<p>The employment lawyers at Fitapelli &amp; Schaffer, LLP have a strong track record for success in single plaintiff and class action litigation.\u00a0 We hope and believe that this decision makes it possible for plaintiffs\u2019 individual and class claims to not be strategically swept out from under them by employers\u2019 strategic use of Rule 68 Offers of Judgment.\u00a0 If you believe you have been subjected to unlawful employment practices, such as failure to pay overtime, failure to pay minimum wages, wage theft, and discrimination, please contact us at (212) 300-0375 or visit our website at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fslawfirm.com\">www.fslawfirm.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a recent decision, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit clarified a key question that is becoming more frequent in single plaintiff and class action litigation:\u00a0 whether a Rule 68 offer of judgment that is not accepted moots a plaintiff\u2019s individual claims to continue their case.\u00a0 A Rule 68 Offer of Judgment is a procedural tool that allows defendants to offer a plaintiff a specific amount of money (usually the maximum recovery allowed under a statute) &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-class-action"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - 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