Devlin v. Scardelletti, 536 U.S. 1, 18 (2002)

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18

DEVLIN v. SCARDELLETTI

Scalia, J., dissenting

B

The Court's other grounds for holding that petitioner is a party to the class judgment are equally weak. First, it contends that petitioner should be considered a party to the judgment because, as a member of the class, he is bound by it. Ante, at 10 ("What is most important to this case is that nonnamed class members are parties to the proceedings in the sense of being bound by the settlement"). This will come as news to law students everywhere. There are any number of persons who are not parties to a judgment yet are nonetheless bound by it. See Restatement § 41(1), at 393 (listing examples); id., § 75, Comment a, at 210 ("A person is bound by a judgment in an action to which he is not a party if he is in 'privity' with a party"). Perhaps the most prominent example is precisely the one we have here. Nonnamed members of a class are bound by the class judgment, even though they are not parties to the judgment, because they are represented by class members who are parties:

"A person who is not a party to an action but who is represented by a party is bound by and entitled to the benefits of a judgment as though he were a party. A person is represented by a party who is . . . [t]he representative of a class of persons similarly situated, designated as such with the approval of the court, of which the person is a member." Id., § 41(1)(e), at 393.

Accord, id., § 75, Comment a, at 210 ("Persons bound through representation by virtue of a relationship with a party are to be contrasted with persons bound by a judgment because they are parties . . ."). Petitioner here, in the words of the Restatement, "is not a party" but "is bound by [the] judg-collateral order, one need not be a party to the underlying litigation (and therefore need not be named in the complaint giving rise to that litigation), but need only be a party to the collateral proceedings (and therefore need only be named in the filings giving rise to those proceedings).

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