Driver v. Marion County Sheriff

Dist. Ct. erred in denying plaintiffs’ requests to certify two subclasses in class action alleging that defendant’s policies and practices caused class members awaiting their release from jail to be detained for unreasonably long period of time. As to first proposed subclass of class members, who were required to wait up to 72 hours prior to their release pursuant to defendant’s policy, Dist. Ct. improperly believed that members awaiting up to 48 hours would be presumptively reasonable under McLaughlin, 500 U.S. 44, since standard set forth in McLaughlin, which concerned delays in presenting arrestees for judicial determination of probable cause, did not apply where members of proposed subclass suffered delays after legal authority for their detention had ceased. Moreover, as to second subclass of class members who suffered delays up to 72 hours pursuant to inadequate computer system used by defendant, Ct. of Appeals rejected Dist. Ct.’s finding that proposed class members of said subclass were unidentifiable.