Rodrique, et al v. Eckerd Corporation, et al

Filing 283

ORDER denying 267 Motion Plaintiff's Motion to Proceed with "Bellwether" Trials. See Order for details. Signed by Judge Virginia M. Hernandez Covington on 3/2/2006. (kak)

Rodrique, et al v. Eckerd Corporation, et al

Doc. 283

Case 2:03-cv-00519-VMC-SPC

Document 283

Filed 03/02/2006

Page 1 of 2

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT MIDDLE DISTRICT OF FLORIDA FORT MYERS DIVISION DELICE RODRIQUE and MARTIN SCHAEFER, individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs, vs. ECKERD CORPORATION, Defendant. ORDER This matter comes before the Court on Plaintiff's Motion to Proceed with "Bellwether" Trials (Doc. # 267), which was filed on February 6, 2006. Plaintiff seeks an order allowing Plaintiffs to proceed with "Bellwether" trials.1 Plaintiff's motion states, "This Plaintiff / Case No. 2:03-cv-519-FtM-33SPC

and four Opt-in Plaintiffs, Abiloa George, William Nesbitt, Teresa

The court in In re: Chevron, 109 F.3d 1016, 1019 (5th Cir. 1997), described "bellwether trials" as follows: A bellwether trial is designed to achieve its value ascertainment function for settlement purposes or to answer troubling causation or liability issues common to the universe of claimants has a core element representativeness­ that is, the same must be a randomly selected one of sufficient size so as to achieve statistical significance to the desired level of confidence in the result obtained. Such samples are selected by the application of the science of inferential statistics. The essence of the science of inferential statistics is that one may confidently draw inferences about the whole from a representative sample of the whole.

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Dockets.Justia.com

Case 2:03-cv-00519-VMC-SPC

Document 283

Filed 03/02/2006

Page 2 of 2

Tomlinson,

and

Steve

Schnitizius

could

reasonably

present

appropriate `test' cases for the remaining 2,706 Opt-in Plaintiffs in this Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C. § 201 et seq.

collective proceeding." (Doc. # 267 at 1). There are a variety of valid bases to deny the present motion to proceed with "Bellwether" trials. The Court denies the motion

as an imprudent allocation of judicial resources. Accordingly, it is now ORDERED, ADJUDGED, and DECREED: 1. Plaintiff's Motion to Proceed with "Bellwether" Trials (Doc. # 267) is DENIED. DONE and ORDERED in Chambers in Ft. Myers, Florida, this 2nd day of March, 2006.

Copies:

All Counsel of Record

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