JURIST - Paper Chase: Wal-Mart asks Ninth Circuit to dismiss class-action discrimination suit

[JURIST] Attorneys for Wal-Mart have asked a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit [official website] to dismiss a class action lawsuit that claims as many as 1.6 million female employees were discriminated against. A district judge originally certified the class [JURIST report] last year, but Wal-Mart told the federal appeals court Monday that the charges raised by the six lead plaintiffs [plaintiffs' website] are not typical or common of the class [Reuters report]. Wal-Mart is also objecting to the size of the class certified, which they say is the largest in US history and would violate its due process rights. Wal-Mart says that its individual stores operate independently and should thus be sued as such; plaintiffs' lawyers called that impractical. The district court rejected their claim that the class size was "impractical on its face" and approved a statistical formula for paying damages if discrimination is proven. AP has more.

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