After issuing an order in October to deny class-action certification because the two plaintiffs did not adequately represent nurses in the Memphis area, U.S. District Judge Samuel H. “Hardy” Mays Sr. is now allowing lawyers for the nurses to make the case for introducing a substitute plaintiff. The lawyers suing the hospitals are alleging that Memphis hospitals conspired to suppress nurse wages and plan tactical changes by filing a “renewed motion” for class-action status and calling on a different expert witness if Anna Bachelder becomes a substitute plaintiff.
Bachelder, the proposed substitute plaintiff, is a registered nurse at Methodist. Her lawyers have informed the court they plan to file a “renewed motion for class certification.” In addition to being based on the report of expert witness Henry Farber, this new motion will also explore a different track. It will “also seek an alternative certification of a narrowed class based on an additional expert report by Princeton economics expert Professor Orley Ashenfelter,” the lawyers said in a filing. Ashenfelter has submitted expert reports in similar cases alleging nurse wage-fixing in Detroit and Albany, N.Y.
For more, see memphisdailynews.com.
