Robert H. Klonoff
| Chapter 11, Part I (Mass Torts) |
§ 11.1 Mass Torts in the 1960s and 1970s |
§ 11.1 Mass Torts in the 1960s and 1970s
Many courts in the 1960s and 1970s relied upon the Advisory Committee
Notes in rejecting efforts to certify mass tort cases. In the late 1970s,
a number of federal trial courts began permitting plaintiffs to bring
mass tort class actions. Most of these efforts, however, were reversed
on appeal, Two highly publicized examples of cases that were certified
and reversed on appeal were (i) the class action involving the collapse
of two skywalks at the Kansas City Hyatt Regency, killing 114 people (certified
in 1982 and reversed the same year); and (ii) a nationwide class of persons
claiming injuries from the Dalkon Shield birth control device (certified
in 1981 and reversed in 1982).
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