Ticor Title Ins. Co. v. Brown, 511 U.S. 117, 4 (1994) (per curiam)

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120

TICOR TITLE INS. CO. v. BROWN

Per Curiam

class. The District Court ultimately rejected these objections, certified the classes under Rules 23(b)(1)(A) and (b)(2),* and accepted the settlement. The Third Circuit affirmed without opinion, In re Real Estate Title and Settlement Services Antitrust Litigation, 815 F. 2d 695 (1987) ( judgment order), and we denied certiorari, 485 U. S. 909 (1988).

In 1990, respondent Brown filed the present action in District Court in Arizona on behalf of Arizona and Wisconsin title insurance consumers, alleging that petitioners had conspired to fix rates for title-search services in those States in violation of the federal antitrust laws. The District Court granted petitioners summary judgment on the ground, among others, that respondents, as parties to the MDL No. 633 suit, were bound by the judgment entered pursuant to the settlement. The Ninth Circuit reversed, accepting respondents' contention that it would violate due process to accord res judicata effect to a judgment in a class action that involved money damages claims (or perhaps that involved primarily money damages claims) against a plaintiff in the previous suit who had not been afforded a right to opt out on those claims. 982 F. 2d 386, 392 (1992). Before the Ninth Circuit, respondents did not (and indeed could not) challenge whether the class in the MDL No. 633 litigation was properly certified under Rules 23(b)(1)(A) and (b)(2). And in this Court, petitioners present only a single question—viz., "[w]hether a federal court may refuse to enforce a prior federal class action judgment, properly certified under Rule 23,

*Certification under Rule 23(b)(1)(A) requires that the prosecution of separate actions would create a risk of "inconsistent or varying adjudications with respect to individual members of the class which would establish incompatible standards of conduct for the party opposing the class." Certification under Rule 23(b)(2) requires that "the party opposing the class has acted or refused to act on grounds generally applicable to the class, thereby making appropriate final injunctive relief or corresponding declaratory relief with respect to the class as a whole."

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