St. Croix Renaissance Group, L.L.L.P. v. Abraham
Petition for certiorari denied on January 13, 2014
Issue: (1) Whether the Third Circuit is correct in its view
that the “single event or occurrence exception” to
“mass actions” under the Class Action Fairness Act,
28 U.S.C. § 1332(d)(11)(B)(ii)(I), applies when the record
merely “demonstrates circumstances that share
some commonality and persist over a period of time”
such as forty years of alleged releases by different
owners, of different materials by different mechanisms
– or the Ninth Circuit is correct in its view that
it applies only in “cases involving a single event or
occurrence, such as an environmental accident;" and (2) whether the Third Circuit incorrectly assigned
the burden with regard to such an exception to the
petitioner.