Creative Montessori Learning Centers v. Ashford Gear LLC

Dist. Ct. erred in granting plaintiff's motion for class certification in case alleging violations of Telephone Consumer Protection Act arising out of allegation that defendant sent unsolicited fax advertisements to various individuals in class, where record contained evidence of misconduct on part of plaintiff's counsel. Misconduct took form of counsel obtaining information about alleged faxes from third-party under false pretenses, as well as counsel's misrepresentation to named class representative that there was already certified class to which representative belonged. As such, denial of class certification was appropriate where there was no confidence that class counsel would act as conscientious fiduciary of class members. Ct. further rejected Dist. Ct.'s observation that only egregious misconduct by counsel could ever arguably justify denial of class status.