Torres v. S.G.E. Mgmt., L.L.C.
| Decision Date | 30 September 2016 |
| Docket Number | No. 14–20128,14–20128 |
| Citation | 838 F.3d 629 |
| Parties | Juan Ramon Torres; Eugene Robison, Plaintiffs–Appellees v. S.G.E. Management, L.L.C. ; Stream Gas & Electric, L.T.D.; Stream S.P.E. G.P., L.L.C; Stream S.P.E., L.T.D.; Ignite Holdings, L.T.D. ; et al., Defendants–Appellants |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Thomas C. Goldstein, Eric Franklin Citron, Goldstein & Russell, P.C., Bethesda, MD, Brent Taylor Caldwell, Esq., Matthew J.M. Prebeg, Ph.D., Prebeg, Faucett & Abbot, P.L.L.C., Scott M. Clearman, Esq., Clearman Law Firm, P.L.L.C., Houston, TX, Andrew Jack Kochanowski, Sommers Schwartz, P.C., Southfield, MI, for Plaintiffs–Appellees.
James C. Ho, Esq., Kyle Douglas Hawkins, Bradley G. Hubbard, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, L.L.P., Dallas, TX, for Defendants–Appellants.
Harry Max Reasoner, Esq., Vinson & Elkins, L.L.P., Houston, TX, John Patrick Elwood, Joshua Stephen Johnson, Vinson & Elkins, L.L.P., John W. Webb, Washington, DC, for Amicus Curiae DIRECT SELLING ASSOCIATION.
Robert Brooks Gilbreath, Hawkins Parnell Thackston & Young, L.L.P., Dallas, TX, for Amicus Curiae TRUTH IN ADVERTISING.
Harry Max Reasoner, Esq., Vinson & Elkins, L.L.P., Houston, TX, John Patrick Elwood, Joshua Stephen Johnson, Vinson & Elkins, L.L.P., Kathryn Comerford Todd, U.S. Chamber Litigation Center, Washington, DC, for Amicus Curiae CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
Julie Nepveu, Esq., Mary Ellen E. Signorille, Senior Attorney, AARP Foundation Litigation, Washington, DC, for Amicus Curiae AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF RETIRED PERSONS.
Harry Max Reasoner, Esq., Vinson & Elkins, L.L.P., Houston, TX, John Patrick Elwood, Joshua Stephen Johnson, Vinson & Elkins, L.L.P., Craig G. Goodman, National Energy Marketers Association, Washington, DC, for Amicus Curiae NATIONAL ENERGY MARKETERS ASSOCIATION.
Adina Hyman Rosenbaum, Public Citizen Litigation Group, Washington, DC, for Amicus Curiae PUBLIC CITIZEN, INCORPORATED.
James Patrick Sullivan, King & Spalding, L.L.P., Austin, TX, for Amici Curiae MICHELLE DAVIS, JUNE JOSEPH, JUANITA MARQUEZ, RAVEN MORENO, RAYMOND MOREY, ANDREW MOYER, JULIA STERN, JEFF STIER.
Before STEWART, Chief Judge, and JOLLY, DAVIS, JONES, SMITH, WIENER, DENNIS, CLEMENT, PRADO, OWEN, ELROD, SOUTHWICK, HAYNES, GRAVES, HIGGINSON, and COSTA, Circuit Judges.
WIENER
and COSTA, Circuit Judges, joined by STEWART, Chief Judge, and DAVIS, SMITH, DENNIS, PRADO, ELROD, SOUTHWICK, GRAVES, HIGGINSON, Circuit Judges :
The Plaintiffs–Appellees brought a civil action under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”), 18 U.S.C. §§ 1961
–68, alleging that Stream Energy, through its multi-level marketing program, Ignite, as well as a number of other defendants, (collectively the “Defendants”) operated a fraudulent pyramid scheme. The Plaintiffs allege that the fraud has caused them financial losses. The district court certified a class of plaintiffs (the “Plaintiffs”), comprising those who lost money participating as Independent Associates (“IAs”) in Ignite's program.
We now review that certification en banc.
Stream Energy sells gas and electricity to customers in Texas, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and the District of Columbia. Ignite is the marketing arm of Stream. Although Stream sells energy to customers, it is not a public utility that directly produces energy by owning the energy-producing infrastructure. Instead, it acts more as a middleman, reselling gas and electricity in deregulated energy markets that it buys from actual utilities. According to the Plaintiffs, Stream has realized only small profits on its energy sales, despite its large revenues, because Stream sells energy just above, or sometimes even at, its costs.
Rather than making meaningful profits through its sales, the Plaintiffs contend that Stream is set up like a classic pyramid scheme to make almost all of its money through the recruitment of salespeople. According to the Plaintiffs, it works like this: Stream's marketing arm, Ignite, operates a multi-level marketing program in which IAs (1) sell energy to customers, and (2) recruit other individuals to join as IAs who in turn sell energy to customers and recruit individuals to join as IAs. Under the IA program, Ignite charges individuals for the right to sell Stream services to customers and to recruit IAs. An IA pays Ignite $329 up front for the right to sell Stream energy and to recruit IAs, and also pays an optional recurring fee for a “Homesite” website that the IA can use to promote his or her Stream business.1 The putative class members are those individuals who paid to become IAs and lost money.
For each energy customer recruited, Ignite pays the IA a small percentage of that customer's bill as a commission, known as “Residual Income” or “Monthly Energy Income” (“MEI”). According to the Plaintiffs, however, the far more lucrative opportunities come from the recruitment of other IAs. Ignite pays IAs “Leadership Income” for recruiting other IAs. When an IA recruits another IA, he or she receives income from both (1) energy sales by that IA and his downline IAs, and (2) recruitment of other IAs by that IA and his downline IAs.
An IA's success depends primarily on recruiting a “downline” of other IAs who, in turn, recruit other IAs and customers into the Ignite program. As an IA recruits more IAs, he proceeds up a ladder of Ignite leadership positions. All IAs start out as “Directors,” the lowest level of Ignite leadership. By recruiting more IAs, an IA can move up three additional leadership levels, first to “Managing Director,” then to “Senior Director,” and finally to “Executive Director.” By building a downline, the IA also receives MEI for customers whom the downline IAs recruit to join Stream, along with bonuses for the recruitment of IAs both by the first IA and his downline IAs.
Ignite also promotes a “3&10 program.” Under this program, Ignite pays an IA a $100 bonus if the IA enrolls four customers in the first 30 days. An IA can substitute purchase of the Homesite for two customers, and can be his or her own first customer, in which case that IA needs to recruit only one other customer to receive this bonus. Ignite offers an additional $100 bonus if the IA can obtain six additional customers within sixty days, and a $100 bonus for the first three new IAs that an IA recruits. If an IA recruits another IA who in turn enrolls four customers in his or her first thirty days, Ignite will pay the first IA a third $100 bonus. If the IA recruits two IAs and those recruits each enroll four customers in their first thirty days, Ignite will pay two more $100 bonuses. Ignite calls this the “3&10 program” because it requires an IA to recruit three new IAs and ten new customers (or seven if the IA purchased the Homesite and enrolls his or herself as a customer).
Over time, Stream's market has become saturated, and the Plaintiffs claim that they have lost money as a result of their participation in the IA program. The Plaintiffs allege that over 86% of individuals who signed up as IAs lost money in fees, collectively losing over $87 million. In contrast, a miniscule number of individuals have made significant sums of money.
This suit was brought by former IAs Juan Ramon Torres and Eugene Robison, who allege that Stream, Ignite, and various individual defendants have violated RICO. They sought to certify a class consisting of those IAs who have lost money as a result of participating in Ignite's program. The Plaintiffs sought certification under different theories.
The first was that the Defendants' common marketing materials were replete with fraudulent misstatements about how lucrative becoming an IA could be, and that—because all class members saw at least one of these statements—the Plaintiffs could show that their injuries arise from a common set of frauds. This theory did not require the Plaintiffs to prove that Ignite is a pyramid scheme; instead, it required only proof of specific misrepresentations.
But they also sought certification under theories that would require the Plaintiffs to prove that Ignite is a pyramid scheme. If they could prove that illegal conduct—and everyone acknowledges that the liability question is common to all class members—then the Plaintiffs contended that they did not need to identify specific misrepresentations on which particular class members relied, as individual reliance is not an element of a RICO claim. Instead, the Plaintiffs contended that RICO's causation requirement could be satisfied by classwide proof that their joining Ignite was a direct and foreseeable result of the Defendants' engaging in a pyramid scheme. Proximate cause could also be shown, they argued, through a common sense inference that they were duped into joining the pyramid scheme based on the representation that Ignite is a legitimate enterprise.
In response, the Defendants asserted primarily that the predominance requirement of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(b)(3)
is not met because individual issues of reliance will necessarily lead to an individualized causation inquiry under RICO. They also disagreed with the Plaintiffs' arguments that reliance is not a required element under RICO.
The district court rejected class certification on the Plaintiffs' theory that depends on specific misrepresentations, concluding that whether the Plaintiffs relied on the array of alleged misrepresentations would require an individualized inquiry. But the court found that class certification was appropriate as to the Plaintiffs' other theories that depend on common proof of a pyramid scheme. It held that first-party reliance is not an element of a RICO claim predicated on mail or wire fraud, and common proof could establish the proximate cause that is required. Although it focused primarily on the argument that a jury could logically infer that class members joined Ignite based on the implicit representation that it is a legal multi-level marketing program, it also recognized...
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