Mars Steel Corporation, individually and as a representative of a class of similarly situated persons, Plaintiffs-Appellees v. Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Company of Chicago, Defendant-Appellee; Appeal of William J. Tunney, 834 F.2d 677

Summary

A state court class representative filed a class action against a company in state court. The state court judge certified the class action. Subsequently, a federal court class representative filed a class action against the same company in federal court. The district court certified the federal lawsuit as a class action for settlement purposes and approved a settlement between the company and the federal class. The state court class representative appealed, arguing that the class should have been certified long before the settlement was given even preliminary approval, that the settlement was unfair, that the class notice was inaccurate and misleading, and that he was denied an opportunity to present evidence of the settlement's unfairness. On appeal, the court affirmed, holding that that the settlement was fair, and the delayed certification was proper, because the class received the expected value of their claim as if it had gone to trial. Moreover, the procedure was fair because ...