SYLVESTER OWINO, ET AL V. CORECIVIC, INC., No. 21-55221 (9th Cir. 2022)
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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement contracts with CoreCivic to incarcerate detained immigrants in 24 facilities across 11 states. Plaintiffs, detained solely due to their immigration status and neither charged with, nor convicted of, any crime, alleged that the overseers of their private detention facilities forced them to perform labor against their will and without adequate compensation in violation of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000, the California Trafficking Victims Protection Act (“California TVPA”), various provisions of the California Labor Code, and other state laws.
The Ninth Circuit filed (1) an order denying a petition for panel rehearing and, on behalf of the court, a petition for rehearing en banc; and (2) an opinion (a) amending and superceding the panel’s original opinion and (b) affirming the district court’s order certifying three classes. The panel held that the district court properly exercised its discretion in certifying a California Labor Law Class, a California Forced Labor Class, and a National Forced Labor Class. The panel held that, as to the California Forced Labor Class, Plaintiffs submitted sufficient proof of a classwide policy of forced labor to establish commonality. The panel agreed with the district court that narrowing the California Forced Labor Class based on the California TVPA’s statute of limitations was not required at the class certification stage. Further, the panel held that, as to the National Forced Labor Class, the district court did not abuse its discretion in concluding that Plaintiffs presented significant proof of a classwide policy of forced labor and that common questions predominated over individual ones.
Court Description: Class Certification / Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act The panel filed (1) an order denying a petition for panel rehearing and, on behalf of the court, a petition for rehearing en banc; and (2) an opinion (a) amending and superceding the panel’s original opinion and (b) affirming the district court’s order certifying three classes in an action brought under the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 by individuals who were incarcerated in private immigration detention facilities owned and operated by CoreCivic, Inc., a for-profit corporation. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement contracts with CoreCivic to incarcerate detained immigrants in 24 facilities across 11 states. Plaintiffs, detained solely due to their immigration status and neither charged with, nor *The Honorable Richard D. Bennett, United States District Judge for the District of Maryland, sitting by designation. OWINO V. CORE CIVIC, INC. 3 convicted of, any crime, alleged that the overseers of their private detention facilities forced them to perform labor against their will and without adequate compensation in violation of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000, the California Trafficking Victims Protection Act (“California TVPA”), various provisions of the California Labor Code, and other state laws. The panel held that the district court properly exercised its discretion in certifying a California Labor Law Class, a California Forced Labor Class, and a National Forced Labor Class. The panel held that, as to the California Forced Labor Class, plaintiffs submitted sufficient proof of a classwide policy of forced labor to establish commonality. Plaintiffs established predominance because the claims of the class members all depended on common questions of law and fact. The panel agreed with the district court that narrowing the California Forced Labor Class based on the California TVPA’s statute of limitations was not required at the class certification stage. For the same reasons as above, the panel held that, as to the National Forced Labor Class, the district court did not abuse its discretion in concluding that plaintiffs presented significant proof of a classwide policy of forced labor and that common questions predominated over individual ones. The panel held that under Moser v. Benefytt, Inc., 8 F.4th 872 (9th Cir. 2021), CoreCivic’s personal jurisdiction challenge with respect to the claim of non-California-facility class members was an issue for the district court to resolve. The panel declined to vacate the certification of the National Forced Labor Class, but it held that CoreCivic retained its personal jurisdiction defense, and the panel 4 OWINO V. CORECIVIC, INC. remanded the personal jurisdiction question to the district court for consideration at the appropriate time. As to the California Labor Law Class, the panel held that plaintiffs established that damages were capable of measurement on a classwide basis, and they did not need to present a fully formed damages model when discovery was not yet complete. The panel agreed with the district court that the named plaintiffs were typical of the class they sought to represent and their allegations, if true, fit within California’s Unfair Competition Law and the state labor law provisions they invoked. Narrowing the class based on statute of limitations was not required at the certification stage. The panel held that the district court did not abuse its discretion in certifying a failure-to-pay and waiting-time claim, which was affirmatively interwoven in plaintiffs’ pleadings. Judge VanDyke, joined by Judges Callahan, Bennett, R. Nelson, and Bumatay, and by Judge Ikuta except as to Part II-A, dissented from the denial of rehearing en banc. In Part II-A, Judge VanDyke wrote that the panel created inter- and intra-circuit conflicts by eliminating the actual causation requirement for “forced labor” claims under the TVPA. In Part II-B, Judge VanDyke wrote that rehearing en banc also was warranted because the panel transgressed the holding of Wal-Mart Stores v. Dukes, 564 U.S. 338 (2011), disregarding Fed. R. Civ. P. 23’s commonality requirement by concluding that a handful of declarations from detainees at only one of the defendant’s 24 facilities was significant proof of the defendant’s nationwide policies and practices. OWINO V. CORE CIVIC, INC. 5
This opinion or order relates to an opinion or order originally issued on June 3, 2022.
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