Dewalt v. Hooks

Summary

The Court affirmed the denial of class certification because plaintiffs failed to show that the proposed class members shared a common issue capable of resolution on a class-wide basis. Differences in the purposes, duration, procedural safeguards, and conditions of the challenged housing assignments, together with insufficient evidence linking the policies to a uniform risk of harm, supported the trial court's ruling. The Court did not reach the independent grounds concerning adequacy of representation or superiority.