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Microsoft Wins Xbox Class-Action Fight at US Supreme Court (reuters.com)
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled in favor of Microsoft in its bid to fend off class action claims by Xbox 360 owners who said the popular videogame console gouges discs because of a design defect. From a report: The court, in a 8-0 ruling, overturned a 2015 decision by the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that allowed console owners to appeal the dismissal of their class action lawsuit by a federal judge in Seattle in 2012. Typically parties cannot appeal a class certification ruling until the entire case has reached a conclusion. But the 9th Circuit allowed the console owners to voluntarily dismiss their lawsuit so they could immediately appeal the denial of a class certification. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, writing on behalf of the court, said such a move was not permitted because a voluntary dismissal of a lawsuit is not a final decision and thus cannot be appealed. The approach sought by the plaintiffs would undermine litigation rules "designed to guard against piecemeal appeals," Ginsburg wrote.
I don't understand this summary at all.
Is this a good thing or a bad thing for Microsoft?
If I parsed it right.
A) Console owners got themselves a class action lawsuit.
B) In 2012 a federal judge dismissed the class action lawsuit
B2) They would then have to wait until the rest of the process (whatever that is, it doesn't say, maybe individual (non class) lawsuits) complete.
C) But then the 9th circuit said "We'll let you dismiss that suit you brought, so it's ended, so you can appeal the dismissal of the class certification".
D) The supremes, but not including Diana Ross said "You can't do that. That's cheating". You have to wait while paying large sums to lawyers.
Lesson: If your product breaks due to a design defect, wear the plaintiffs down with process.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
Citation? Date range?
Politifact claims it's the 6th, 11th, then 9th.
Findlaw also says it's the 6th.
In 2015 it looks like it was the 11th, and in 2014 it looks like the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 10th and 11th came ahead of the 9th in reversals.
But Fox news agrees with you, even though the year they select, 2012, it was not the most overturned, with the 1st, 6th, 8th, and 11th having more (the 9th was tied with the 5th).
I'm not sure how this counts as tap dancing...