Murray v. Auslander, 00-11955

• Citation: 244 F.3d 807
• Decision Date: 13 March 2001
• Docket Number: No. 00-11955,00-11955
• Parties: (11th Cir. 2001) Cathleen MURRAY, Shelly Wilson, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Charles AUSLANDER, Acting Administrator of DFCS District 11, State of Florida, Agency for Health Care Administration, by the highest ranking official, et al., Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (11th Circuit)

Page 807

244 F.3d 807 (11th Cir. 2001)

Cathleen MURRAY, Shelly Wilson, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Charles AUSLANDER, Acting Administrator of DFCS District 11, State of Florida, Agency for Health Care Administration, by the highest ranking official, et al., Defendants-Appellants.

No. 00-11955.

United States Court of Appeals Eleventh Circuit.

March 13, 2001.

March 27, 2001

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. (No. 98-01066-CV-WDF), Wilkie D. Ferguson, Jr., Judge.

Before WILSON, KRAVITCH and COX, Circuit Judges.

KRAVITCH, Circuit Judge:

The State of Florida and several Florida officials (collectively the "Defendants") appeal the district court's order certifying a plaintiff class of developmentally disabled persons who have been denied services for which they are eligible under Florida's Home and Community Based Waiver Program. Defendants contend: (1) that every named plaintiff either lacked standing or possessed moot claims at the time of certification; (2) that the named plaintiffs lack commonality and typicality of claims; (3) that the class definition is overly broad; and (4) that the plaintiffs' class is subsumed in the certified class of another lawsuit. After careful consideration, we vacate the class certification order and remand for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.

I. BACKGROUND

Plaintiffs are developmentally disabled individuals participating in the Medicaid program under Florida's Home and Community Based Waiver Program ("Waiver Program").¹ On May 12, 1998, Plaintiffs filed a class action lawsuit in federal court, challenging the manner in which Defendants administer the Waiver Program. Plaintiffs allege violations of Title XIX of the Social Security Act, 1396n (c)(2)(A); the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution; and the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"), 42 U.S.C. 12101, et seq. Specifically, Plaintiffs contend that, contrary to federal law, Defendants routinely deny needed Home and Community Based Waiver ("HCBW") services to Medicaid-eligible, developmentally disabled individuals based on funding concerns rather than medical necessity concerns.²

According to the plaintiffs, Defendants have implemented a policy which "caps" the amount that Florida will spend on services for a particular individual regardless of changes in that individual's condition or needs. Plaintiffs assert that the "cap" used by Defendants equals the cost of an individual's HCBW services as of the day he or she entered the Waiver Program. Consequently, participants of the Waiver Program allegedly are forced to select between certain needed HCBW services despite their admitted eligibility for all such services. Plaintiffs seek declaratory and injunctive relief which would require Defendants to provide all necessary HCBW services for participants of the Waiver Program whom Defendants already have deemed eligible to receive such services. Plaintiffs also seek compensatory damages under the ADA.

On May 13, 1998, the day after Plaintiffs filed this class action, another group of developmentally disabled individuals filed a class action in which they also challenged Florida's administration of the Waiver Program. See Prado-Steiman v. Bush, No. 98-06496 (S.D.Fla. Mar. 30, 1999), vacated by Prado-Steiman v. Bush, 221 F.3d 1266 (11th Cir.2000). The district court certified the Prado-Steiman class in March 1999, but this court vacated the certification order and remanded for further proceedings. See Prado-Steiman, 221 F.3d at 1283.

On February 22, 2000, the district court in the instant case certified the following class under Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(b)(2):

All developmentally disabled individuals participating in the Home and Community- Based Waiver who are not receiving needed services under the Waiver for which they are qualified and eligible.

Defendants sought an interlocutory appeal of the class certification decision under Rule 23(f) and we granted permission to appeal.

II. DISCUSSION

A.

We review orders granting class certification for abuse of discretion. Prado- Steiman, 221 F.3d at 1278. In order to obtain class certification, plaintiffs first must satisfy the prerequisites of numerosity, commonality, typicality, and adequacy of representation specified in Rule 23(a).³ General Tele. Co. of Southwest v. Falcon, 457 U.S. 147, 156, 102 S.Ct. 2364, 72 L.Ed.2d 740 (1982). Here, the district court found that the named plaintiffs met all four prerequisites. Defendants disagree, arguing that the class lacks commonality and typicality of claims because none of the named plaintiffs demonstrated that they have Article III standing and that they possessed claims that were not moot at the time of certification.

Prado-Steiman v. Bush involved a similar challenge to the district court's class certification order. In that case, the defendants argued that the class did not satisfy the commonality and typicality requirements because plaintiffs made no showing that at least one of the named plaintiffs possessed individual standing to raise each class claim. 221 F.3d at 1277. Addressing the defendants' objection, we held that "prior to the certification of a class, and technically speaking before undertaking any formal typicality or commonality review, the district court must determine that at least one named class representative has Article III standing to raise each class subclaim." Id. at 1279; see also Tucker v. Phyfer, 819 F.2d 1030, 1033 (11th Cir.1987) (concluding that where no exception applies, class action is moot if no named plaintiff's claim is live on date of certification). Our holding in Prado-Steiman reconfirmed the well-settled rule that "any analysis of class certification must begin with the issue of standing...." Griffin v. Dugger, 823 F.2d 1476, 1482 (11th Cir.1987). Nevertheless, in Prado-Steiman, we determined that the record was not sufficiently developed to enable us to conduct the fact-specific inquiry necessary to resolve the defendants' standing challenge on appeal. Accordingly, we remanded the case to the district court and directed it to ensure that the standing requirement was satisfied. 221 F.3d at 1280.

In the present case, Defendants argue that none of the named plaintiffs had live claims at the time the court certified the class because "every one of the named plaintiffs either voluntarily decided not to seek a service allegedly denied, had obtained it, or did not actually need it." We believe that a resolution of this standing/mootness challenge necessitates the same fact-specific inquiry required in Prado-Steiman. As in Prado-Steiman, this inquiry requires that we examine "factual proffers, through affidavits and other evidentiary documents, that have not been developed sufficiently as of now."⁴ 221 F.3d at 1280. In accordance with our holding in Prado-Steiman, we remand this case to the district court and direct it to conduct an evidentiary inquiry to determine whether at least one named representative of the class has standing to bring a non-moot claim.⁵ See id. If the district court finds that the named plaintiffs' claims were moot at the time of certification, then it should consider whether any exceptions to the mootness doctrine apply. See, e.g., Jews for Jesus, Inc. v. Hillsborough County Aviation Auth., 162 F.3d 627, 629 (11th Cir.1998) (explaining that voluntary cessation of challenged practice renders case moot only if there is no reasonable expectation that challenged practice will resume after lawsuit is dismissed); Sierra Club v. Martin, 110 F.3d 1551, 1554 (11th Cir.1997) ("To satisfy the 'capable of repetition, yet evading review' exception to mootness, the Supreme Court has required that (1) there be a reasonable expectation or a demonstrated probability that the same controversy will recur involving the same complaining party, and (2) the challenged action is in its duration too short to be fully litigated prior to its cessation or expiration.").

B.

In addition, Defendants argue that the named plaintiffs lack commonality and typicality of claims with other class members because issues subject to individualized proof allegedly predominate over issues subject to generalized proof. For example, Defendants contend that in order to establish liability, each Plaintiff must demonstrate that he or she is eligible to receive a particular HCBW service. According to Defendants, the chief criteria for eligibility are medical necessity and individual need, two elements which they contend may only be determined through individual hearings. See Chandler v. City of Dallas, 2 F.3d 1385, 1396 (5th Cir.1993) (holding that determinations of whether an individual is handicapped are necessarily individualized inquiries, making class certification and class relief inappropriate). In addition, Defendants contend that individual hearings are necessary to determine why Plaintiffs were denied a particular service.

A class representative must possess the same interest and suffer the same injury as the class members in order to be typical under Rule 23(a)(3). See Prado- Steiman, 221 F.3d at 1279. The typicality requirement may be satisfied despite substantial factual differences, however, when there is a "strong similarity of legal theories." See Appleyard v. Wallace, 754 F.2d 955, 958 (11th Cir.1985). Under the Rule 23(a)(2) commonality requirement, a class action must involve issues that are susceptible to class-wide proof. See Hudson v. Delta Air Lines, Inc., 90 F.3d 451, 457 (11th Cir.1996). Nevertheless, because the district court certified this class under Rule 23(b)(2) rather than Rule 23(b)(3), there is no requirement here that issues subject to generalized proof predominate over those subject to individualized proofs. See Rutstein v. Avis Rent-A Car Sys., Inc., 211 F.3d 1228, 1233 (11th Cir.2000); Barnes v. American Tobacco Co., 161 F.3d 127, 143 (3rd Cir.1998) ("While 23(b)(2) class actions have no...