During that interim period, the defendant company offered Gomez $1,500 per unwanted text message that he received — an offer that would effectively buy off Gomez but leave the other class members with nothing. They then claimed that, even if Gomez did not agree to this offer, the lawsuit had to cease. Under Article III of the Constitution, the company argued, a lawsuit must not proceed unless there is an active “case” or “controversy” between two parties. So when the defendant company offered to give Gomez everything he personally could expect to collect under the law, that offer allegedly rendered the case moot because there was no longer a real dispute between the two sides.
Prior to today, there was good reason to believe that this defendant would prevail — and class action defendants would win the right to shut down class actions by buying off named plaintiffs. The Roberts Court has historically shown considerable hostility towards class actions. And a majority of the Court appeared skeptical of Gomez’s arguments when the case was argued. Mr. Gomez, who didn’t exactly experience a crippling injury, also isn’t the most sympathetic plaintiff — although a loss by Gomez could have had sweeping consequences for all other class action plaintiffs.
Nevertheless, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s opinion for the Court rejected this attempt to limit the class action. Quoting from a previous dissenting opinion by Justice Elena Kagan, Ginsburg explained that “an unaccepted settlement offer—like any unaccepted contract offer—is a legal nullity, with no operative effect. As every first-year law student learns, the recipient’s rejection of an offer ‘leaves the matter as if no offer had ever been made.’” Thus, when Gomez decided not to be bought off by the defendant, the case had to proceed as if the defendant’s offer never happened.
