Amchem Products v. Windsor - Breyer Urges Action

Justice Breyer, in an opinion with which Justice Stevens joined, concurred in part and dissented in part. He agreed with the Court's basic stance that the settlement offer itself was a relevant factor to use in considering whether a group constituted a class; however, as he said, he found "several problems with the approach which lead me to a different conclusion."

In Breyer's view, the need for a settlement in the case made it extremely important for the Court to go ahead and allow such a settlement to take place. Furthermore, in looking at the settlement offer itself, he saw more commonality in the claimants than the rest of the Court did. As for the question of conflict of interest in representation, to Breyer it appeared that the Court was trying to "second-guess" the court of appeals, without allowing that court to consider that particular question. Generally, Breyer viewed the settlement as fair, and therefore, "in the absence of further review by the Court of Appeals, I cannot accept the majority's suggestions that `notice' is inadequate."