Johnny Zamrzla, et al. v. Antelope Valley Watermaster, et al.

In Phillips Petroleum Co. v. Shutts, this Court addressed the minimum due process that is owed to absent members of a plaintiff class who stood to lose through the class action the right to sue for modest money damages but expressly left open what due process requires when absent class members face more serious property deprivations or liability. The Court did not address the issue because such facts were not before it. This case has those facts. The first question presented is: What minimum due process protections are required before absent class members may be bound by a class judgment that substantially impairs their real-property rights and exposes them to monetary liability, rather than merely extinguishing claims for money damages? A related yet unsettled question on which the circuits and states are split is: Does due process require that class members be afforded the right to opt out of the class action where the action does not predominantly concern monetary claims but nonetheless adjudicates monetary claims against class members who are subject to the forum court’s personal jurisdiction?