Laws & Jurisprudence
CLASS SUIT
8:28 AM
A CLASS SUIT is an action where one or some of the parties may sue for the benefit of all if the requisites for said action are complied with. (Riano, Civil Procedure: A Restatement for the Bar, p. 236, 2009 ed.)
The following are the requisites of class suit:
1. Subject matter of the controversy is one of common or general interest to many persons;
2. Parties affected are so numerous that it is impracticable to bring them all before the court;
3. Parties bringing the class suit are sufficiently numerous or representative of the class and can fully protect the interests of all concerned (Sec. 12 Rule 3); and
4. Representatives sue or defend for the benefit of all (Sec.12, Rule 3 Rules of Court)
Any party in interest shall have the right to intervene to protect his
individual interest. [Rule 3, Sec. 12]
If
a class suit is improperly brought, the action is subject to
dismissal regardless of the cause of action [Rule 16, Sec 1 (d)].
A
taxpayer's suit or a stockholder's derivative suit is in the nature
of a class suit, although subject to the other requisites of the
corresponding governing law especially on the issue of locus standi.
[Regalado]
There
is no class suit in an action filed by associations of sugar planters
to recover damages in behalf of individual sugar planters for an
allegedly libelous article in an international magazine. There is no
common or general interest in reputation of a specific individual.
Each of the sugar planters has a separate and distinct reputation in
the community not shared by the others. [Riano citing Newsweek, Inc.
v. Intermediate Appellate court, G.R.No. L-63559 (1986)]
A
class suit does not require a commonality of interest in the
questions involved in the suit. What is required by the Rules is a
common or general interest in the subject matter of the litigation.
[Riano citing Mathay v. Consolidated Bank & Trust Company,G.R.No. L-23136 (1974)]
0 comments