Nutraceutical Corp. v. Lambert
Issues
Whether Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(f)’s 14-day deadline to petition for permission to appeal is subject to equitable exceptions.
This case asks the Supreme Court to consider whether courts may apply equitable exceptions to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(f)’s 14-day deadline to petition for permission to appeal. After the district court decertified the consumer class suing Nutraceutical and denied Lambert’s motion for reconsideration, Lambert filed a petition for permission to appeal under Rule 23(f) in June 2015. The Ninth Circuit held that the petition was proper because equitable exceptions applied. Nutraceutical now argues that the petition was not timely because it was filed well beyond the 14-day deadline and that equitable exceptions do not apply to Rule 23(f). Lambert contends that the petition was filed in a timely manner and that equitable exceptions make the petition proper even if the filing was not timely. This case will have implications for protecting unsophisticated litigants in class action suits as well as for judicial economy and resources.
Questions as Framed for the Court by the Parties
Whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit erred when it held that equitable exceptions apply to mandatory claim-processing rules—such as Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(f), which establishes a 14-day deadline to file a petition for permission to appeal an order granting or denying class-action certification—and can excuse a party’s failure to file timely within the deadline specified by Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(f), in conflict with the decisions of the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th, 10th and 11th Circuits.
Respondent Troy Lambert (“Lambert”) brought a consumer class action in federal district court against Petitioner Nutraceutical Corporation (“Nutraceutical”), alleging that their dietary supplement product was illegally misbranded and violated numerous provisions of Title 21 of the Code of Federal Regulation
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Additional Resources
- Boris Bershteyn et al., The Supreme Court’s Business Docket for the October 2018 Term, JD Supra (Oct. 23, 2018).
- Lawrence Weinstein & Jennifer Yang, Supreme Court Briefing Begins Over Equitable Tolling of Rule 23(f) Deadline, National Law Review (Sept. 5, 2018).