First Circuit class certification opinion: Matamoros v. Starbucks Corp.

Last month, the First Circuit affirmed an order granting class certification (and the judgment in favor of the class) in a tip-pooling case brought under Massachusetts law.  Matamoros v. StarbucksCorp., ___ F.3d ___, 2012 WL 5458443 (1st Cir. Nov.9, 2012). 

The opinion's language on supposedly "under-inclusive" class definitions nicely bookends the Seventh Circuit's language on "overbroad" classes a couple of weeks earlier:

In a last-ditcheffort to defeat class certification, [defendant]posits that a class action will notresolve the rights of all interested persons [if certain employees are notincluded in the class definition].  This prognostication constitutes littlemore than whistling past the graveyard.  ….  [T]hemere fact that a class action will not resolve every conceivable issue touchingupon a challenged policy or practice does not require a court to throw out thebaby with the bath water.  So it ishere: considerations of fairness and judicial economy are well-served byresolving [the smaller group of employees’] claims in a class action.

Id. at *9.