Katrina Canal Breaches Litigation v. Board of Commissioners

KING, Circuit Judge:

Appellants, objecting members of a proposed settlement class of plaintiffs damaged or injured by Hurricanes Katrina or Rita, seek review of the district court’s certification of a limited fund mandatory class under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(b)(1)(B) and its approval of a final class settlement. We hold that the Supreme Court’s opinion in Ortiz v. Fibreboard Corp., 527 U.S. 815, 119 S.Ct. 2295, 144 L.Ed.2d 715 (1999), requires decertification of the mandatory class because the settlement fails to provide a procedure for distribution of the settlement fund that…