Kasalo v. Harris & Harris Ltd.

Dist. Ct. erred in dismissing plaintiff’s individual claim under Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, as well as plaintiff’s proposed class action, where: (1) plaintiff’s counsel appeared late at status call; (2) plaintiff’s counsel had repeatedly failed to file timely motion to certify proposed class; and (3) Dist. Ct. had previously expressed doubt as to viability of proposed class action. Dismissal of entire case was too harsh of sanction where parties had previously agreed that plaintiff’s individual claim was meritorious, and where Dist. Ct. had failed to give prior explicit warning that plaintiff’s failure to develop class action case placed plaintiff at risk of entire lawsuit being dismissed. Ct. further noted that instead of dismissal of entire case, Dist. Ct. should have entertained subject of class certification if it had serious doubts about viability of class action.