SAN FRANCISCO (Legal Newsline) – Plaintiffs lawyers mad about empty space in theater candy want their case heard in a state court rather than federal.
On Aug. 28, lawyers at Clarkson Law Firm in Los Angeles asked a federal judge in San Francisco to remand their case. Strangely, they need to argue they aren’t seeking as much money as Tootsie Roll Industries says they are.
The Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 gives federal courts jurisdiction over class actions in which more than $5 million is at stake. In removing the case to federal court under that statute, Tootsie Roll valued the claim at $6.2 million – full restitution of the sales of the boxes in question.
“Even the most aggressive of plaintiffs’ counsel would not accept this flawed syllogism,” the motion to remand says. “In the simplest of mathematical terms, if consumers actually believed the boxes were 100% full, but they only got 50% of the product, then their damages would equal only $3.1 million, which does not meet CAFA’s $5M jurisdictional limit.”
complains that boxes of Junior Mints and Sugar Babies sold in movie theaters have too much empty space – called “slack fill.” The defendant, Tootsie Roll Industries, removed the case to federal court on July 29.
“To increase profits at the expense of consumers and fair competition, Tootsie participated in a scheme to deceptively sell candy in oversized, opaque boxes that do not reasonably inform consumers that they are half empty,” the lawsuit says.