Another Concussion Lawsuit Filed Against the NFL

On January 18, 2012, Ron Solt v. NFL was filed in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. This is considered a “related case” and it will eventually be included in the currently pending MDL motion involving the other 15 lawsuits.

This now brings the total lawsuits filed against the NFL to 17, but there are only 16 lawsuits pending since the Hardman suit was voluntarily dismissed and replaced by the Jacobs lawsuit.

The Solt suit is similar to the other suits filed except the lawyers from the Locks Law Firm divided the putative class into subclasses; presumably it’s an attempt to satisfy the strict medical monitoring requirements.

According to the Complaint, the global Class is defined–similarly to the other lawsuits–as “[a]ll retired or former professional football players…who were employed by any member club that was part of the association called the NFL….”

The Class is then split into three subclasses: 1) Non-Concussion Subclass; 2) Symptomatic Subclass; and 3) Concussion Subclass.

The Non-Concussion Subclass includes all members of the Class who are “asymptomatic and did not sustain any concussions while playing football in the NFL….”

The Symptomatic Subclass includes all members of the Class who “suffered and/or presently suffer from conditions and/or symptoms as a result of one or more concussions…from their playing football in the NFL.”

The Concussion Subclass includes all members of the Class who “are asymptomatic but sustained one or more concussions…while playing football in the NFL.”

Whenever a litigant attempts to create a subclass, the subclass must also meet all the procedural requirements of Rule 23. See Rule 23(c)(4) and Retired Chicago Police Ass’n v. City of Chicago, 7 F.3d 584, 599 (7th Cir. 1993).

Whether the subclasses, and the global class, will be able to meet all the requirements of Rule 23 will have to be fully briefed by both parties and determined by the court.

However, the first matter before the court, other than deciding the MDL motion, will be whether Section 301 of the National Labor Relations Act preempts the Plaintiffs’ lawsuits. The Easterling Plaintiffs’ response to the NFL’s Motion to Dismiss is due February 1, 2012.