Later this week, the Sixth Circuit will hear argument in Hrivnak v. NCO Portfolio Management, Inc. At issue in the June 8th oral argument is a question of first impression in the Sixth Circuit: whether a defendant’s pre-certification offer of complete relief to a plaintiff who purports to bring a class action operates to moot the plaintiff’s complaint and strip the plaintiff of Article III standing.
The subject of when and under what circumstances a pre-certification offer of full settlement or offer of judgment can moot a class representative’s personal claim — and thus the representative’s class claim — has been the subject of much recent litigation. Two circuits have held that a class representative lacks Article III standing where his claims were satisfied before a ruling on class certification. However, four circuits have taken the opposite view: that an offer of full satisfaction to a class representative does not moot the class aspect of the case because any subsequent certification would “relate back” to the filing of the complaint. Thus, a plaintiff may move to certify a class and avoid mootness even after he has received an offer of complete relief.
