Top Appellate Reversals -- Mazza v. American Honda Motor Co.

A Los Angeles trial judge's ruling certifying a nationwide class action over allegedly misleading advertising for Acura sedans' collision mitigation braking system exposed defendant American Honda Motor Co. to massive potential liability.

It was up to Mayer Brown LLP partner Donald M. Falk, representing Honda, to persuade the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to vacate the certification.

Falk said he and his Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP colleagues, who had defended Honda in the trial court, decided to push hard on two issues. One was whether a national class could be certified under one state's laws. "It was a critical element of our appeal that we developed the conflicts among consumer laws in the various states," Falk said.

The second key issue was Falk's claim that the proposed class had a commonality problem. "You can't rope in all the buyers of a product to recover on the basis of ads many of them had never seen," Falk said.

After the case had been briefed and argued in 2010, there remained a lot left to do. The circuit panel deferred submission for a year while the U.S. Supreme Court pondered Wal-Mart v. Dukes, the big gender discrimination class action. During that period, new developments in California class action law required the lawyers to submit a dozen letters to the panel detailing each new case and its implications.

"It was critical that we stay on top of the law and present it to the 9th Circuit as a persuasive demonstration that our view was correct," Falk said. When the high court ruled against certification in Dukes, supplemental briefing in the Honda case was in order.

At last, in January 2012, the circuit panel ruled for Honda, reversing U.S. District Judge Valerie Baker Fairbank. "You had Florida and Maryland plaintiffs trying to recover under California law," Falk said. "The circuit's ruling has become a key decision in the class action certification field."

- JOHN ROEMER

<!-- Top Appellate Reversals -- Mazza v. American Honda Motor Co. -->