Ortiz v. Fibreboard Corp., 527 U.S. 815, 59 (1999)

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Cite as: 527 U. S. 815 (1999)

Breyer, J., dissenting

holds might strike oil and send the value of the trust skyrocketing. Limitation is a matter of present value, which takes appropriate account of such future possibilities.

I need not pursue the conceptual matter further, however, for the majority apparently concedes the conceptual point that a fund's limit may equal its "value discounted by risk." Ante, at 851. But the majority sets forth three additional conditions that it says are "sufficient . . . to justify binding absent members of a class under Rule 23(b)(1)(B), from which no one has the right to secede." Ante, at 838. The three are:

Condition One: That "the totals of the aggregated liquidated claims and the fund available for satisfying them, set definitely at their maximums, demonstrate the inadequacy of the fund to pay all the claims." Ibid.; Part IV-A, ante.

Condition Two: That "the claimants identified by a common theory of recovery were treated equitably among themselves." Ante, at 839; Part IV-B, ante. Condition Three: That "the whole of the inadequate fund was to be devoted to the overwhelming claims." Ante, at 839; Part IV-C, ante.

I shall discuss each condition in turn.

A

In my view, the first condition is substantially satisfied. No one doubts that the "totals of the aggregated" claims well exceed the value of the assets in the "fund available for satisfying them," at least if the fund totaled about what the District Court said it did, namely, $1.77 billion at most. The District Court said that the limited fund equaled in value "the sum of the value of Fibreboard plus the value of its insurance coverage," or $235 million plus $1.535 billion. App. to Pet. for Cert. 492a. The Court of Appeals upheld

873

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