Lack of Receipts Sinks Class Action Certification
The Northern District of California recently denied class certification related to claims of improper marketing and advertising of Fresh Step cat litter (In Re Clorox Consumer Litigation, Case No. 12-00280-SC (N.D. Cal. July 28, 2014) (ECF No. 129)). One of the reasons was a failure to establish a class that was sufficiently ascertainable, as plaintiffs had not kept their receipts..
The Court concluded there was “no administratively feasible method of determining membership for the vast majority of potential members of Plaintiffs’ proposed sub-classes.”, stating that if plaintiffs intend to rely on retailer records, they must show that Fresh Step retailers even had sufficient records to identify the class. The Court specifically disallowed consumer affidavits alone as a basis for identification.
Renee Howdeshell
Renee Howdeshell is a founding member of Fulcrum Inquiry, an accounting, finance and economic consulting firm that performs damage analyses for commercial litigation, forensic accountings, royalty & distribution audits, financial investigations, and business valuations. Ms. Howdeshell holds a degree in Finance and Marketing from the University of Virginia's McIntire School of Commerce and is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE). She has testified as an expert witness in federal court, CA state court and arbitration regarding the results of her work. She can be reached at (213) 787-4112 and her resume is available at www.fulcrum.com.
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