Opinion · Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
Eric Steinmetz v. Brinker International, Inc.
Eric Steinmetz v. Brinker Int’l, Inc., 73 F.4th 883 (11th Cir. 2023)
- Type
- Opinion
- Court
- Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
- Jurisdiction
- Federal
- Date
- 2023-07-11
- Topic
- general
How later courts describe this case
- holding misuse of PII after theft is concrete injuryin-fact under TransUnion
- posting of Private Information on the dark web “establishes both a present injury . . . and a substantial risk of future injury”
- emphasizing the importance of Rule 23’s predominance requirement post-TransUnion “because a district court must ultimately weed out plaintiffs who do not have Article III standing before damages are awarded to a class”
- “We start from the basic principle that at the class certification stage only the named plaintiffs need have standing.”
- “[A] mere risk of future harm, without more, does not give rise to Article III standing for recovery of damages, even if it might give rise to Article III standing for purposes of injunctive relief.”
- “The fact that hackers took credit card data and corresponding personal information . . . and affirmatively posted that information for sale on [the dark web] is the misuse for standing purposes that we said was missing in Tsao.”
Citator
UpLaw has not yet analyzed Eric Steinmetz v. Brinker International, Inc.. The absence of a flag is not a finding that it is good law.
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[PUBLISH]
In the
United States Court of Appeals
For the Eleventh Circuit
____________________
No. 21-13146
____________________
MARLENE GREEN-COOPER,
individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, et al.,
Plaintiffs,
ERIC STEINMETZ,
individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated,
MICHAEL FRANKLIN,
individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated,
SHENIKA THEUS,
individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated,
Plaintiffs-Appellees,
versus
BRINKER INTERNATIONAL, INC.,
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2 Opinion of the Court 21-13146
Defendant-Appellant.
____________________
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Middle District of Florida
D.C. Docket No. 3:18-cv-00686-TJC-MCR
____________________
Before WILSON, BRANCH, and TJOFLAT, Circuit Judges.
TJOFLAT, Circuit Judge:
Brinker International, Inc. (“Brinker”), the owner of Chili’s
restaurants, faced a cyber-attack in which customers’ credit and
debit cards were compromised. Chili’s customers have brought a
class action because their information was accessed (and in some
cases used) and disseminated by cybercriminals. Below, the Dis-
trict Court certified the class, and Brinker appeals that decision.
We vacate in part and remand for further proceedings.
I.
Between March and April 2018, hackers targeted the Chili’s
restaurant systems and stole both customer card data and person-
ally identifiable information.1 Plaintiffs explain that hackers then
took that data and posted it on Joker Stash, an online marketplace
1 Different locations were affected at different periods within this timeframe.
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21-13146 Opinion of the Court 3
for stolen payment data. The plaintiffs explain that, based on
Brinker’s internal reporting, the information for all 4.5 million
cards the hackers accessed in the Brinker system were found on
Joker Stash.
There are three named plaintiffs in this case: Shenika Theus,
Michael Franklin, and Eric Steinmetz.2 Theus is a Texas resident
who used her card at Chili’s in Texas on or about March 31, 2018.
She experienced five unauthorized charges on the card she had
used at Chili’s and canceled the card as a result, disputing the
charges that were not hers. She now spends time monitoring her
account to make sure there is no further misuse.
Franklin is a California resident who made two Chili’s pur-
chases in the relevant timeframe, one on or about March 17, 2018,
and one on or about April 22, 2018. Franklin experienced two un-
authorized charges on his account, so he canceled that credit card,
spoke for hours on the phone with bank representatives, and went
to the Chili’s locations he had visited to collect receipts for his trans-
actions. 3 His bank canceled the affected card.
2 These plaintiffs, originally filing individual actions, moved to consolidate
their cases. The District Court granted that motion.
3 The locations Franklin visited were affected by the data breach between
March 30, 2018–April 22, 2018, and March 22, 2018–April 21, 2018, respec-
tively. Franklin visited the first Chili’s on or about March 17, 2018, 13 days
before the affected period, and he visited the second Chili’s on or about April
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4 Opinion of the Court 21-13146
Steinmetz is a Nevada resident who used his credit card at a
Nevada Chili’s on or about April 2, 2018. Steinmetz called the
Chili’s national office, the local Chili’s chain, credit reporting agen-
cies, and his bank as a result of the data breach. He canceled the
card he used at Chili’s but never experienced fraudulent charges.
Pertinent to this appeal, 4 these three plaintiffs moved to cer-
tify two classes under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 23(a) and
23(b)(3), 5 seeking both injunctive and monetary relief: 1) a nation-
wide class (or alternatively a statewide class) for negligence and 2)
a California statewide class for California consumer protection
claims based on its unfair business practices state laws. They were
defined as follows:
1. All persons residing in the United States who
made a credit or debit card purchase at any af-
fected Chili’s location during the period of the
Data Breach (the “Nationwide Class”).
2. All persons residing in California who made a
credit or debit card purchase at any affected Chili’s
22, 2018, one day after the affected period for the second Chili’s. His card had
also previously been compromised in a Whole Foods data breach in 2017.
4 Plaintiffs originally brought a variety of other claims that are not before us.
We do not address them here.
5 Plaintiffs proffered a declaration from a damages expert to establish that a
common methodology for calculating damages for individual class members
existed.
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21-13146 Opinion of the Court 5
location during the period of the Data Breach (the
“California Statewide Class”).
The District Court then certified the nationwide class for the
negligence claim as follows:
All persons residing in the United States who made a
credit or debit card purchase at any affected Chili’s lo-
cation during the period of the Data Breach (March
and April 2018) who: (1) had their data accessed by
cybercriminals and, (2) incurred reasonable expenses
or time spent in mitigation of the consequences of the
Data Breach (the “Nationwide Class”).
The District Court also certified a separate California class under
the state unfair competition laws:
All persons residing in California who made a credit
or debit card purchase at any affected Chili’s location
during the period of the Data Breach (March and
April 2018) who: (1) had their data accessed by cyber-
criminals and, (2) incurred reasonable expenses or
time spent in mitigation of the consequences of the
Data Breach (the “California Statewide Class”).
We then permitted Brinker to appeal these class certifications pur-
suant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(f).
II.
We review a district court’s certification of a class under Fed-
eral Rule of Civil Procedure 23 for abuse of discretion. Hines v.
Widnall, 334 F.3d 1253, 1255
(11th Cir. 2003). A district court
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6 Opinion of the Court 21-13146
abuses its discretion when it certifies a class that does not meet the
requirements of Rule 23. See id.
(“In order to certify a class under
the FRCP, all of the requirements of Rule 23(a) must be met, as
well as one requirement of Rule 23(b).”).
Class certification under Rule 23(b)(3), like in this case, is
only appropriate if “the trial court is satisfied, after a rigorous anal-
ysis, that the prerequisites of Rule 23(a) have been satisfied” and
that “the questions of law or fact common to class members pre-
dominate over any questions affecting only individual members”
through “evidentiary proof.” Comcast Corp. v. Behrend, 569 U.S. 27, 33
,133 S. Ct. 1426, 1432
(2013) (internal quotation marks and
citations omitted). Rule 23 is more than “a mere pleading standard.
A party seeking class certification must affirmatively demonstrate
his compliance with the Rule—that is, he must be prepared to
prove [the existence of the elements of Rule 23].” Wal-Mart Stores,
Inc. v. Dukes, 564 U.S. 338, 350
,131 S. Ct. 2541, 2551
(2011).
At the same time, “[m]erits questions may be considered to
the extent—but only to the extent—that they are relevant to deter-
mining whether the Rule 23 prerequisites for class certification are
satisfied,” so a district court does not have a free-ranging “authority
to conduct a preliminary inquiry into the merits of a suit” at the
class certification stage “unless it is necessary to determine the pro-
priety of certification.” Amgen Inc. v. Conn. Ret. Plans & Tr.
Funds, 568 U.S. 455, 466
,133 S. Ct. 1184, 1195
(2013) (internal quo-
tation marks and citations omitted).
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21-13146 Opinion of the Court 7
III.
On appeal, Brinker mounts three arguments: 1) the District
Court’s class certification order violates our precedent on Article
III standing for class actions; 2) the District Court improvidently
granted certification because the class will eventually require indi-
vidualized mini-trials on class members’ injuries; and 3) the District
Court erred by finding that a common damages methodology ex-
isted for the class. We will address each in turn.
IV.
A.
We start from the basic principle that at the class certifica-
tion stage only the named plaintiffs need have standing. 6 Cordoba
v. DIRECTV, LLC, 942 F.3d 1259, 1264
(11th Cir. 2019). Article III
standing requires that 1) the plaintiff has experienced an injury that
is concrete and particularized and actual or imminent, 2) the de-
fendant’s conduct is the cause of the plaintiff’s injury, and 3) a
6 We may review both the allegations in the complaint and evidence in the
record so far to determine whether the named plaintiffs in this case have es-
tablished Article III standing for class certification purposes. Cordoba v.
DIRECTV, LLC, 942 F.3d 1259, 1264, 1271
(11th Cir. 2019) (looking at the
allegations of named plaintiff to determine whether he had standing); Prado-
Steiman ex rel. Prado v. Bush, 221 F.3d 1266
, 1280–81 (11th Cir. 2000) (evalu-
ating both named plaintiffs’ allegations and the lack of evidence of injury in
the record for some claims while analyzing Article III standing); Griffin v. Dug-
ger, 823 F.2d 1476, 1482
(11th Cir. 1987) (“Under elementary principles of
standing, a plaintiff must allege and show that he personally suffered injury.”).
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8 Opinion of the Court 21-13146
decision by the court would likely redress the plaintiff’s injury.
Lujan v. Defs. of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555
, 560–61,112 S. Ct. 2130, 2136
(1992). As we’ll explain, only Theus satisfies Lujan’s standing
analysis.
We begin with the concrete injury analysis. For purposes of
the concrete injury analysis under Article III, we have recognized
three kinds of harm: 1) tangible harms, like “physical or monetary
harms”; 2) intangible harms, like “injuries with a close relationship
to harms traditionally recognized as providing a basis for lawsuits
in American courts”;7 and, finally, 3) a “material risk of future
harm” when a plaintiff is seeking injunctive relief. TransUnion
LLC v. Ramirez, 141 S. Ct. 2190, 2204, 2210
(2021). And the Su-
preme Court most recently clarified in TransUnion that a mere risk
of future harm, without more, does not give rise to Article III stand-
ing for recovery of damages, even if it might give rise to Article III
standing for purposes of injunctive relief. Id. at 2210
. We will take
each of the named plaintiff’s standing analysis in turn.
While each plaintiff puts forth a variety of allegations of
harm in an effort to establish Article III standing, we need only
7 Constitutional harms, like violations of the First Amendment, and reputa-
tional harms, neither of which is at issue here, are examples of traditional
harms for purposes of Article III standing. TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez, 141 S. Ct. 2190, 2204
(2021). Stigmatic harm is another example of intangible in-
jury giving rise to Article III standing. Laufer v. Arpan LLC, 29 F.4th 1268, 1273
(11th Cir. 2022). Informational injuries can also give rise to Article III
standing as intangible harms. TransUnion, 141 S. Ct. at 2214
.
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21-13146 Opinion of the Court 9
address one: hackers took these individuals’ data and posted it on
Joker Stash.
We said in Tsao that a plaintiff whose personal information
is subject to a data breach can establish a concrete injury for pur-
poses of Article III standing if, as a result of the breach, he experi-
ences “misuse” of his data in some way. See Tsao v. Captiva MVP
Rest. Partners, LLC, 986 F.3d 1332, 1343
(11th Cir. 2021). We typ-
ically require misuse of the data cybercriminals acquire from a data
breach because such misuse constitutes both a “present” injury and
a “substantial risk” of harm in the future. Id. at 1343, 1344
(“[W]ith-
out specific evidence of some misuse of class members’ data, a
named plaintiff’s burden to plausibly plead factual allegations suffi-
cient to show that the threatened harm of future identity theft was
‘certainly impending’—or that there was a ‘substantial risk’ of such
harm—will be difficult to meet.” (emphasis in original and citation
omitted)).
All three plaintiffs maintain that their credit card and per-
sonal information was “exposed for theft and sale on the dark
web.” That allegation is critical. The fact that hackers took credit
card data and corresponding personal information from the Chili’s
restaurant systems and affirmatively posted that information for
sale on Joker Stash is the misuse for standing purposes that we said
was missing in Tsao.8 And it establishes both a present injury—
8 In Tsao, we said that a plaintiff had not established standing based on a state
common-law negligence claim after a data breach where he alleged only that
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10 Opinion of the Court 21-13146
credit card data and personal information floating around on the
dark web—and a substantial risk of future injury—future misuse of
personal information associated with the hacked credit card. We
hold that this is a concrete injury that is sufficient to establish Arti-
cle III standing.9
he had canceled his credit card and faced an increased risk of identity theft
because the credit card system at a restaurant he visited had been hacked.
Tsao, 986 F.3d at 1344
. We said that because Tsao had not accompanied his
allegations of increased risk of identity theft with allegations of misuse of any
credit card data taken by the hackers in the restaurant breach, he could not
meet Article III standing requirements. Id.
9 We decided Tsao before TransUnion was published, but we see the two as
consistent. TransUnion established that a common-law analogue analysis is
required when plaintiffs allege a statutory violation. We did not conduct that
analysis in Tsao in the context of a state common-law negligence claim. See
TransUnion, 141 S. Ct. at 2208
. But we think that the common-law analogue
analysis is sui generis to legislature-made statutory violations because the Su-
preme Court has not applied it to any other kind of intangible harm. For in-
stance, constitutional harms, reputational harms, informational harms, and
stigmatic harms are all intangible injuries that give rise to Article III standing,
and the Supreme Court has never conducted the common-law analogue anal-
ysis in determining whether these kinds of harms establish Article III standing.
See Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye, Inc. v. City of Hialeah, 508 U.S. 520, 531
,113 S. Ct. 2217, 2225
(1993) (infringement of free exercise); Meese v.
Keene, 481 U.S. 465, 473
,107 S. Ct. 1862, 1867
(1987) (reputational harms);
TransUnion, 141 S. Ct. at 2214
(identifying informational injuries as intangible
harms); Laufer, 29 F.4th at 1272–73 (recognizing that under Supreme Court
precedent both stigmatic and emotional harms have sufficed to establish Arti-
cle III standing). So, we adhere to the reasoning of Tsao today. See United
States v. Gillis, 938 F.3d 1181, 1198
(11th Cir. 2019) (explaining the prior panel
precedent rule).
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B.
Although all three plaintiffs adequately allege a concrete in-
jury sufficient for Article III standing, Franklin and Steinmetz’s al-
legations face a fatal causation issue, even at this stage of litiga-
tion.10
The Third Amended Complaint alleged that Franklin visited
two Chili’s restaurants during March and April of 2018; one in Car-
son, California, and one in Lakewood, California. The at-risk
timeframe for the Chili’s in Carson was subsequently determined
to be March 30, 2018, to April 22, 2018. Franklin visited the Carson
Chili’s on March 17, 2018—well outside the affected period. The
District Court correctly concluded that “Franklin’s first transaction
would not qualify him for the class without additional evidence, as
he dined several days outside the affected time range.”
The at-risk timeframe for the Chili’s in Lakewood was
March 22, 2018, to April 21, 2018. Franklin visited the Lakewood
Chili’s on April 22, 2018—a day shy of the affected period. Falling
outside the affected period poses a traceability problem for Frank-
lin’s allegations. Without any allegation that he dined at a Chili’s
during the time that that Chili’s was compromised in the data
breach, Franklin fails to allege that his injury was “fairly . . .
trace[able] to the challenged action of the defendant.” Lujan, 504
10 Theus visited a Chili’s location during the breach period for that location.
As such, her alleged injuries are fairly traceable to the Chili’s data breach.
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12 Opinion of the Court 21-13146
U.S. at 560, 112 S. Ct. at 2136
(alterations in original) (internal quo-
tation marks and citation omitted). 11
The Third Amended Complaint also alleged that Steinmetz
dined at the North Las Vegas Chili’s on April 4, 2018. The at-risk
time frame for the North Las Vegas Chili’s was subsequently deter-
mined to be April 4, 2018, to April 21, 2018. Therefore, if
Steinmetz’s alleged dining date is true, he falls within the affected
period. The record, however, shows that the allegation was
slightly—but importantly—off the mark. Steinmetz stated in re-
sponse to an interrogatory and in his deposition that he dined at
the North Las Vegas Chili’s on April 2, 2018. 12
Much like with Franklin, therefore, Steinmetz does not have
standing because the date he dined at Chili’s is right outside of the
affected date range for that Chili’s. The proof required for a plain-
tiff to establish standing varies depending on the stage of litigation.
11 The District Court found that “while [Franklin’s Lakewood Chili’s transac-
tion was] one day outside the [affected] range,” Brinker’s chart indicating the
affected time periods for various Chili’s locations indicated that the end date
of the affected period “could not [be] validate[d].” Therefore, the District
Court included Franklin as part of the class due to that wiggle room in the
affected date range. But this was error. Although the Brinker chart included
a “[c]ould not validate date” disclaimer for its April 22, 2018, end date for the
Carson Chili’s, the chart did not include such a disclaimer for the Lakewood
Chili’s.
12 Steinmetz initially stated in his deposition that he dined at the Chili’s on
April 3, 2018, but later corrected himself when faced with documentation to
the contrary that he dined there on April 2.
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Lujan, 504 U.S. at 561
,112 S. Ct. at 2136
(“Since [the standing ele-
ments] are not mere pleading requirements but rather an indispen-
sable part of the plaintiff’s case, each element must be supported in
the same way as any other matter on which the plaintiff bears the
burden of proof, i.e., with the manner and degree of evidence re-
quired at the successive stages of the litigation.”). At the class cer-
tification stage, “it may be necessary for the court to probe behind
the pleadings” to assess standing. Gen. Tel. Co. of Sw. v. Falcon,
457 U.S. 147, 160
,102 S. Ct. 2364, 2372
(1982).
Where, as here, the facts developed in discovery firmly con-
tradict the allegation in the complaint, the District Court cannot
rely on the complaint’s factual allegation. Plaintiffs make no argu-
ment and provide no additional facts to cast doubt on Steinmetz’s
discovery admissions that he dined at Chili’s outside of the at-risk
time period. He therefore cannot fairly trace any alleged injury to
Brinker’s challenged action. See Lujan, 504 U.S. at 560
,112 S. Ct. at 2136
.
C.
Having determined that one named plaintiff has standing,
we turn to the class definitions because Rule 23(b)(3)’s predomi-
nance analysis implicates Article III standing. Cordoba, 942 F.3d at
1272–73 (“In some cases, whether absent class members can estab-
lish standing may be exceedingly relevant to the class certification
analysis required by Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23.”). The
predominance inquiry is especially important in light of TransUn-
ion’s (and Cordoba’s) reminder that “every class member must
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14 Opinion of the Court 21-13146
have Article III standing in order to recover individual damages”
because a district court must ultimately weed out plaintiffs who do
not have Article III standing before damages are awarded to a class.
TransUnion, 141 S. Ct. at 2208
; Cordoba,942 F.3d at 1264
(“At
some point before it may order any form of relief to the putative
class members, the court will have to sort out those plaintiffs who
were actually injured from those who were not.”).
Turning to the class definitions the District Court certified,
we have the following:
All persons residing in the United States who made a
credit or debit card purchase at any affected Chili’s lo-
cation during the period of the Data Breach (March
and April 2018) who: (1) had their data accessed by
cybercriminals and, (2) incurred reasonable expenses
or time spent in mitigation of the consequences of the
Data Breach (the “Nationwide Class”).
...
All persons residing in California who made a credit
or debit card purchase at any affected Chili’s location
during the period of the Data Breach (March and
April 2018) who: (1) had their data accessed by cyber-
criminals and, (2) incurred reasonable expenses or
time spent in mitigation of the consequences of the
Data Breach (the “California Statewide Class”).
The District Court explained that its class definitions “avoid
later predominance issues regarding standing and the inclusion of
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21-13146 Opinion of the Court 15
uninjured individuals because now individuals are not in the class
unless they have had their data ‘misused’ per the Eleventh Circuit’s
Tsao decision, either through experiencing fraudulent charges or it
being posted on the dark web.” So, under the class definitions, the
District Court thought that the phrase “data accessed by cybercrim-
inals” meant either that an individual had experienced fraudulent
charges or that the hacked credit card information had been posted
on the dark web. And, to make sure to clear any standing bar im-
posed by Tsao, the District Court added an additional requirement
that the individuals in the class must have tried to mitigate the con-
sequences of the data breach.
While the District Court’s interpretation of the class defini-
tions surely meets the standing analysis we have outlined above for
named plaintiff Theus, we note that the phrase in the class defini-
tions “accessed by cybercriminals” is broader than the two deline-
ated categories the District Court gave, which were limited to cases
of fraudulent charges or posting of credit card information on the
dark web. Therefore, we think it wise to remand this case to give
the District Court the opportunity to clarify its predominance find-
ing. It may either refine the class definitions to only include those
two categories and then conduct a more thorough predominance
analysis,13 or the District Court may instead conduct a
13 The District Court centered its predominance analysis around the fact that
it thought it had created class definitions in which all members of the class had
standing. And, while that calculus is part of the predominance inquiry, Cor-
doba, 942 F.3d at 1276
, refining the class definitions is not necessary or
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16 Opinion of the Court 21-13146
predominance analysis anew under Rule 23 with the existing class
definitions based on the understanding that the class definitions as
they now stand may include uninjured individuals under Tsao,
who have simply had their data accessed by cybercriminals and
canceled their cards as a result. See Cordoba, 942 F.3d at 1274
(“The essential point, however, is that at some time in the course
of the litigation the district court will have to determine whether
each of the absent class members has standing before they could be
granted any relief.”).
On remand, the District Court should also determine the vi-
ability of the California class afresh. As discussed supra part IV.B,
Franklin does not have standing to bring the alleged causes of ac-
tion against Brinker, including the causes of action based in Califor-
nia state law. Without a named plaintiff with standing to bring the
California claims, the California class cannot survive.
V.
With standing sorted out, we are left with Brinker’s final
claim that individualized damages claims will predominate over
sufficient to satisfy the predominance inquiry as to standing under Cordoba.
In the predominance analysis, a district court must determine whether “each
plaintiff will likely have to provide some individualized proof that they have
standing.” Id. at 1275. The District Court here did not determine whether its
class definitions would require individualized proof of standing, especially as
to time or effort expended to mitigate the consequences of the data breach.
So, remand is appropriate to afford the District Court the opportunity to per-
form that analysis.
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21-13146 Opinion of the Court 17
the issues common to the class under Rule 23(b)(3). As a starting
point, “the presence of individualized damages issues does not pre-
vent a finding that the common issues in the case predominate.”
Allapattah Servs., Inc. v. Exxon Corp., 333 F.3d 1248
, 1261 (11th
Cir. 2003). Individualized damages issues predominate if “compu-
ting them will be so complex, fact-specific, and difficult that the
burden on the court system would be simply intolerable” or if “sig-
nificant individualized questions go[] to liability.” Brown v. Elec-
trolux Home Prods., Inc., 817 F.3d 1225, 1240
(11th Cir. 2016) (in-
ternal quotation marks omitted) (citing Klay v. Humana, Inc., 382 F.3d 1241, 1260
(11th Cir. 2004), abrogated in part on other
grounds by Bridge v. Phoenix Bond & Indem. Co., 553 U.S. 639
,
128 S. Ct. 2131
(2008)). And “[i]ndividualized damages issues are
of course least likely to defeat predominance where damages can
be computed according to some formula, statistical analysis, or
other easy or essentially mechanical methods.” Sacred Heart
Health Sys., Inc. v. Humana Mil. Healthcare Servs., Inc., 601 F.3d 1159, 1179
(11th Cir. 2010) (internal quotation marks and citation
omitted).
At the class certification stage, all that the named plaintiffs
had to prove was that a reliable damages methodology existed, not
the actual damages plaintiffs sustained. Plaintiffs must demon-
strate that a “model purporting to serve as evidence of damages in
this class action . . . measure[s] only those damages attributable to
that theory.” Comcast, 569 U.S. at 35
,133 S. Ct. at 1433
. And “[t]he
first step in a damages study is the translation of the legal theory of
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18 Opinion of the Court 21-13146
the harmful event into an analysis of the economic impact of that
event.” Id. at 38
, 133 S. Ct. at 1435 (emphasis in original and cita-
tion omitted). Here, plaintiffs’ expert provided the District Court
with a common methodology for calculating damages based on “a
standard dollar amount for lost opportunities to accrue rewards
points (whether or not they used a rewards card), the value of card-
holder time (whether or not they spent any time addressing the
breach), and out-of-pocket damages (whether or not they incurred
any out-of-pocket damages).” 14 The plaintiffs’ expert used a dam-
ages methodology based on averages because the expert believed
the “delta between class members’ damages is minimal irrespective
of the type of card used or time spent.”
14 Plaintiffs’ expert does not purport to provide a damages methodology based
on averages to determine actual damages for each plaintiff sustained as a result
of the misuse of their personal information. Such inquiry into actual damages
would surely be an individual inquiry. Rather, according to the expert, the
out-of-pocket damages category includes:
such items as penalties paid by cardholders in connection with
not being able to use their cards to pay bills on time, gasoline
to go back to the retail establishment where the breach oc-
curred or to the cardholder’s bank or local police station, post-
age and stationary, overnight replacement card shipping fees,
bank charges to replace cards (while unusual this cost does oc-
cur on occasion), ATM fees to get access to cash, and hiring a
third party to assist cardholder recovery and security efforts.
The expert stated that data breaches typically yield damages attributable to
this category somewhere in the ballpark of $38 per plaintiff.
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21-13146 Opinion of the Court 19
In our analysis of a damages methodology based on aver-
ages, the focus is on “whether the sample at issue could have been
used to establish liability in an individual action.” Tyson Foods,
Inc. v. Bouaphakeo, 577 U.S. 442, 458
,136 S. Ct. 1036, 1048
(2016).
In this case, each Chili’s customer fitting within the class definitions
experienced a similar injury of a compromised card combined with
some effort to mitigate the harm caused by the compromise. So,
the damages methodology is not “enlarg[ing] the class members’
substantive rights” by giving class members an award for an injury
they could not otherwise prove in an individual action. Id.
(internal
alterations, quotation marks, and citation omitted). Through the
District Court’s rigorous analysis, it found that at the class certifi-
cation stage the damages model was sufficient, and it would be a
“matter for the jury” to decide actual damages at trial. Id. at 459
,
136 S. Ct. at 1049
. Any individual inquiry into particularized dam-
ages resulting from the data breach, such as damages recoverable
due to uncompensated loss caused by compromised personal infor-
mation, does not predominate over the three categories of com-
mon damages inquiries analyzed by the plaintiffs’ expert. We do
not think, therefore, that the District Court’s determination on this
point was an abuse of discretion, so we do not disturb it here.
VACATED IN PART AND REMANDED.
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21-13146 BRANCH, J., Concurring and Dissenting in Part 1
BRANCH, J., Specially Concurring in Part and Dissenting in Part:
I write separately to address two issues discussed in the Ma-
jority Opinion: standing and damages. First, while I agree with the
Majority that Shenika Theus is the only named Plaintiff with stand-
ing, I disagree with the Majority’s concrete injury analysis. Second,
I dissent from the Majority’s approval of Plaintiffs’ damages meth-
odology. I address each of these issues in turn.
I. STANDING
Beginning with standing, the Majority and I agree on several
points. First, I agree that two of the three named Plaintiffs do not
have standing. See Cordoba v. DIRECTV, LLC, 942 F.3d 1259, 1264
(11th Cir. 2019) (explaining that only named plaintiffs need to
demonstrate standing at the class certification stage). Specifically,
I agree that Michael Franklin and Eric Steinmetz lack standing be-
cause they failed to establish that their alleged injuries were “fairly
. . . trace[able] to the challenged action of the defendant.” Lujan v.
Defs. Of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 560
(1992) (quotation omitted).
Second, with respect to Shenika Theus, the remaining named
Plaintiff, I agree that Theus can establish standing—but I arrive at
that conclusion for different reasons than the Majority articulates.
Accordingly, my standing discussion proceeds in two parts. I first
explain why I part ways with the Majority’s approach and then ad-
dress why Theus nonetheless establishes a concrete injury.
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2 BRANCH, J., Concurring and Dissenting in Part 21-13146
A.
To begin, I turn to my disagreement with the Majority’s
concrete injury analysis, which rests on two erroneous conclusions
about what Plaintiffs have alleged in their third amended consoli-
dated class action complaint (“TAC”) (the operative complaint in
this case). The Majority’s first conclusion rests on an allegation that
is simply not contained in the TAC, and the Majority’s second con-
clusion rests on an allegation that, when viewed in light of all the
TAC’s allegations, does not establish a concrete injury.
The Majority first concludes that Plaintiffs have alleged that
the “hackers took [their] data and posted it on Joker Stash” (an
online marketplace for stolen payment data). 1 Plaintiffs’ TAC,
however, contains no such allegation. Instead, Plaintiffs’ allega-
tions concern only the risk of “potential fraud and identity theft”
based on “expos[ure]” of Plaintiffs’ data due to the data breach—
i.e., the risk of future harm. Accordingly, I respectfully disagree
with the Majority’s conclusion that the named Plaintiffs have al-
leged that their credit card information was posted on the dark
web.
1 The Majority concludes that the posting of one’s credit card information on
the dark web is sufficient to establish a concrete injury for all three named
Plaintiffs. To be clear, my dissent does not address whether an allegation that
hackers stole Plaintiffs’ data and posted it for sale on the dark web sufficiently
establishes a concrete injury. I write separately because, even assuming such
an allegation was sufficient for concreteness, Plaintiffs have simply not made
that allegation in this case.
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21-13146 BRANCH, J., Concurring and Dissenting in Part 3
As to its second conclusion, the Majority points to Plaintiffs’
TAC allegation that their personal information was “exposed for
theft and sale on the dark web” as “critical” to establishing a con-
crete injury. Because Plaintiffs’ allegations about mere “exposure”
to the theft and sale of their information simply point to an in-
creased risk of identity theft and risk of future harm, however, I
disagree that this concern establishes a concrete injury. I address
the TAC, 2 the motion for class certification, and the class certifica-
tion hearing in turn.3
Starting with the TAC, Plaintiffs’ allegations concern only
the risk of future harm. Plaintiffs describe their injury as “immi-
nent and certainly impending” (i.e., futuristic) and fraud and iden-
tity theft as “potential” (i.e., a mere risk). And allegations relating
to the risk of future harm are insufficient to establish a concrete
injury under Article III. TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez, 141 S. Ct. 2190
, 2210–11 (2021) (explaining that mere risk of future harm
without more does not give rise to Article III standing for recovery
of damages); Tsao v. Captiva MVP Rest. Partners, LLC, 986 F.3d 1332, 1339
(11th Cir. 2021) (“[A] plaintiff alleging a threat of harm
does not have Article III standing . . . .”); Muransky v. Godiva Choc-
olatier, Inc., 979 F.3d 917
, 927–28 (11th Cir. 2020). Indeed, we have
2 The Majority confines its concrete injury analysis to the TAC.
3 The district court and the parties on appeal rely on post-pleading litigation
developments—like the motion for class certification and the class certification
hearing—for their standing arguments.
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4 BRANCH, J., Concurring and Dissenting in Part 21-13146
held that “[e]vidence of a mere data breach does not, standing
alone, satisfy the requirements of Article III standing” and that al-
legations of an “increased risk” of identity theft based on a data
breach are likewise insufficient. Tsao, 986 F.3d at 1344
; Muransky,
979 F.3d at 933 (explaining that the allegation that the plaintiff “and
members of the class continue to be exposed to an elevated risk of
identity theft” is the “kind of conclusory allegation [that] is simply
not enough” for an Article III injury). Thus, because the Majority
rests its concrete injury analysis on an allegation that amounts to
the mere risk of future harm, I cannot join the Majority’s concrete
injury analysis.
The motion for class certification and the class certification
hearing do not help Plaintiffs in establishing a concrete injury ei-
ther. Plaintiffs’ motion for class certification largely echoes the
TAC’s allegations, stating that “Plaintiffs . . . experienced the . . .
harm of having their Customer Data exposed to fraudulent use”
and that the “evidence will establish that [Brinker’s] conduct ex-
posed [their customer data] to unauthorized third parties.” The
motion makes no reference to Joker Stash—or any other site on the
dark web—and states only once in passing that Plaintiffs’ customer
data “ha[d] been exposed and found for sale on the dark web,”
without any allegation of which of the Plaintiffs’ data was exposed
or where such data was “found.” But, as I explain below, this pass-
ing statement does not pass muster in light of Plaintiffs’ admissions
at the class certification hearing.
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21-13146 BRANCH, J., Concurring and Dissenting in Part 5
During the hearing on class certification, Plaintiffs stated
that they had “uncontroverted evidence that the data that was
taken from Brinker’s system was posted for sale and sold on the
dark web.” According to Plaintiffs, at least 4.5 million cards were
affected by the data breach and, according to documents they ob-
tained from Fiserv (Brinker’s processor), those 4.5 million cards—
i.e., one hundred percent of the cards used at Brinker’s locations
during the affected time period—were posted on Joker Stash. De-
spite these assertions at the hearing, however, when the district
court asked Plaintiffs’ counsel whether she knew if any of the three
named Plaintiffs’ cards were actually on the dark web, Plaintiffs’
counsel responded: “[W]e do not know that at this point.” Accord-
ingly, by counsel’s own admission, the record fails to support the
conclusion that the named Plaintiffs’ credit card information was
either posted or sold on the dark web as a result of the data breach.
To the contrary, Plaintiffs admitted that they did not know if their
credit card information was on the dark web.
In sum, considering Plaintiffs’ admission that they do not
know whether their data was posted or sold on the dark web, I can-
not join the Majority’s concrete injury analysis—which rests on
conclusions that are simply unsupported by the record. See Lujan,
504 U.S. at 561
(explaining that the proof required for standing var-
ies “with the manner and degree of evidence required at the suc-
cessive stages of the litigation”); Gen. Tel. Co. of Sw. v. Falcon, 457 U.S. 147, 160
(1982) (explaining that “it may be necessary for the
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6 BRANCH, J., Concurring and Dissenting in Part 21-13146
court to probe behind the pleadings” to assess standing at the class
certification stage).
B.
Although I disagree with the Majority’s concrete injury anal-
ysis, I nonetheless agree that Theus has suffered a concrete injury
(and therefore has standing) for a different reason: she has estab-
lished financial harm. In her deposition, Theus explained that her
transactions at Chili’s, which occurred during the restaurant’s at-
risk time frame,4 caused her to incur unauthorized charges on her
account that led to an overdraft fee and a bank-imposed card re-
placement fee. These unreimbursed, out-of-pocket expenses that
Theus incurred are the type of “pocketbook injur[ies] [that are] . . .
prototypical form[s] of injury in fact.” Collins v. Yellen, 141 S. Ct. 1761
, 1779 (2021); TransUnion,141 S. Ct. at 2204
(explaining that
“traditional tangible harms, such as . . . monetary harms” are “ob-
vious” harms that “readily qualify as concrete injuries under Article
III”). Accordingly, I conclude—for different reasons than the Ma-
jority—that Theus has alleged a concrete harm sufficient for stand-
ing.
II. Damages Methodology
I now turn to the damages issue and conclude that the dis-
trict court erred by accepting the damages methodology offered by
4 As the Majority points out, Theus does not suffer the same traceability prob-
lem that Franklin and Steinmetz do.
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21-13146 BRANCH, J., Concurring and Dissenting in Part 7
Plaintiffs’ expert for two reasons. First, the methodology fails to
tie a damages amount to an injury actually suffered by a plaintiff.
And second, the district court improperly relied on Tyson Foods,
Inc. v. Bouaphakeo, 577 U.S. 442
, 459–61 (2016).
In support of their motion for class certification, Plaintiffs of-
fered an expert declaration to explain their damages methodology.
Plaintiffs’ expert set forth a “damages methodology applicable on a
class-wide basis” by calculating four “damages elements”: (1) the
value of any lost opportunity to accrue rewards points; (2) the
value of stolen payment card data; (3) the value of cardholder time;
and (4) out-of-pocket damages.
The district court rejected Brinker’s argument that the ex-
pert’s methodology was overinclusive and not accurately tailored
to the facts. It explained that “[u]nder [the expert’s] damages meth-
odology, all class members would receive a standard dollar amount
for lost opportunities to accrue rewards points (whether or not
they used a rewards card), the value of cardholder time (whether
or not they spent time addressing the breach), and out-of-pocket
damages (whether or not they incurred any out-of-pocket dam-
ages).” The court continued: “[Plaintiffs’ expert] employs an aver-
ages method to compute damages, reasoning that the delta be-
tween class members’ damages is minimal[,] irrespective of the
type of card used or time spent.” It explained that “[a]s with any
averages calculation, over or under inclusivity is going to be a risk,”
and noted that “the Supreme Court” in Tyson Foods “has approved
the use of averages methods to calculate damages.” The district
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8 BRANCH, J., Concurring and Dissenting in Part 21-13146
court concluded that “at this point [the expert’s] testimony [was]
offered to show that a reliable damages calculation methodology
exists, not to calculate class members’ damages.”
Applying Rule 23(a)’s predominance requirement, the dis-
trict court determined that Plaintiffs’ damages expert offered a
common method of calculating damages that, despite including
“payment cards that may have been breached prior to the Data
Breach,” “shows for class certification purposes that a common
method of addressing causation and damages exists.” The court
opined:
Most data breaches are very similar to one another,
such that a jury may find that a relative average re-
duction in damages for every class member that has
been subjected to other data breaches is appropriate.
As discussed above, the Supreme Court has approved
the use of averages methods to calculate damages, see
Tyson Foods, 577 U.S. [at] 459–61, and the same ra-
tionale could apply here.
Nevertheless, the district court caveated that “if it becomes obvi-
ous at any time that the calculation of damages (including account-
ing for multiple data breaches) will be overly burdensome or indi-
vidualized, the [c]ourt has the option to decertify the class.”
Brinker argues that the district court erred by concluding
that Plaintiffs’ “proposed damages methodology permissibly elim-
inated individualized issues.” Brinker contends that because it is
“entitled to scrutinize each individual claim at trial by referring to
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21-13146 BRANCH, J., Concurring and Dissenting in Part 9
each individual class member’s individual circumstances,” Plain-
tiffs have not met Rule 23’s requirement that common issues pre-
dominate over individual ones. Plaintiffs argue that the “district
court did not abuse its discretion in finding [that they] met this
standard.”
To certify a class under Rule 23(b)(3), a district court must
determine that “questions of law or fact common to class members
predominate over any questions affecting only individual mem-
bers.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 23(b)(3). This predominance determination
includes questions relating to damages. See Tyson Foods, 577 U.S.
at 453–54; Agmen Inc. v. Conn. Ret. Plans & Tr. Funds, 568 U.S. 455, 460
(2013). As the Majority points out, individual damages is-
sues predominate “if computing them will be so complex, fact-spe-
cific, and difficult that the burden on the court system would be
simply intolerable” or if “significant individualized questions go[]
to liability.” Brown v. Electrolux Home Prods., Inc., 817 F.3d 1225, 1240
(11th Cir. 2016) (quotations omitted). Accordingly, in our
analysis of a damages methodology based on averages, the focus is
on “whether the sample at issue could have been used to establish
liability in an individual action.” Tyson Foods, 577 U.S. at 458
.
At the class-certification stage, “a model purporting to serve
as evidence of damages . . . must measure only those damages at-
tributable to” plaintiffs’ theory of liability in the case. Comcast
Corp. v. Behrend, 569 U.S. 27, 35
(2013). “And for purposes of Rule
23, courts must conduct a rigorous analysis to determine whether
that is so.” Id.
(quotation omitted). As such, a court must not only
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10 BRANCH, J., Concurring and Dissenting in Part 21-13146
evaluate whether a damages calculation “provide[s] a method to
measure and quantify damages on a classwide basis,” but also
whether such a methodology constitutes “a just and reasonable in-
ference” or whether it is “speculative.” Id.
Without this evalua-
tion, “any method of measurement [could be] acceptable [at the
class-certification stage] so long as it can be applied classwide, no
matter how arbitrary the measurements may be.” Id.
at 35–36.
And “[s]uch a proposition would reduce Rule 23(b)(3)’s predomi-
nance requirement to a nullity.” Id. at 36
.
Here, the district court approved a damages methodology
that awards to all class members a standard dollar amount “for lost
opportunities to accrue rewards points (whether or not they used
a rewards card), the value of cardholder time (whether or not they
spent any time addressing the breach), and out-of-pocket damages
(whether or not they incurred any out-of-pocket damages).” In
short, this methodology impermissibly permits plaintiffs to receive
an award based on damages that they did not suffer—i.e., an award
that a plaintiff could not establish in an individual action. Tyson
Foods, 577 U.S. at 458
.
The Majority defends the use of representative evidence by
asserting that each “customer fitting within the class definitions ex-
perienced a similar injury,” but this assertion cannot be true. As
the district court acknowledged, Plaintiffs’ damages methodology
could allow a plaintiff to be compensated for opportunities to ac-
crue rewards points, the value of their time spent addressing the
breach, and out-of-pocket damages, even though the plaintiff
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21-13146 BRANCH, J., Concurring and Dissenting in Part 11
suffered none of those harms. Each of these damages elements re-
late to separate and distinct injuries that may not be common to all
class members, meaning that certain plaintiffs may impermissibly
recover damages that they otherwise would not be entitled to in
an individual action. See Comcast Corp., 569 U.S. at 35
.
The district court acknowledged that “[a]s with any averages
calculation, over or under inclusivity is going to be a risk,” but cited
Tyson Foods to say that “the Supreme Court has approved the use
of averages methods to calculate damages.” But Tyson Foods is
inapposite to the facts of this case.
In Tyson Foods, the Supreme Court approved the use of
“representative evidence” to prove that the amount of time em-
ployees spent “donning and doffing” their gear at a chicken plant,
when added to their regular work hours, “amounted to more than
40 hours in a given week” in order to be entitled to recovery under
the Fair Labor Standards Act. Tyson Foods, 577 U.S. at 454
. Far
from categorically “approv[ing] the use of averages methods to cal-
culate damages,” as the district court asserted, the Supreme Court
was careful to reject any request to “establish general rules govern-
ing the use of statistical evidence, or so-called representative evi-
dence, in all class-action cases.” Id. at 455
. Instead, the Court ex-
plained that “[w]hether a representative sample may be used to es-
tablish classwide liability will depend on the purpose for which the
sample is being introduced and on the underlying cause of action.”
Id. at 460
. The Court noted that plaintiffs in that case “sought to
introduce a representative sample to fill an evidentiary gap created
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12 BRANCH, J., Concurring and Dissenting in Part 21-13146
by the employer’s failure to keep adequate records.” Id. at 456
.
And the Court concluded that reliance on this representative evi-
dence “did not deprive [the employer] of its ability to litigate indi-
vidual defenses,” reasoning that “[s]ince there were no alternative
means for the employees to establish their hours worked,” the em-
ployer was left to attack the representative evidence itself. Id. at 457
. The defense was thus “itself common to the claims made by
all class members.” Id.
The justifications for using representative evidence that
were present in Tyson Foods are simply not present here. In this
case, the questions relevant to the damages inquiry include
whether a given class member possessed a rewards card, spent time
addressing a data breach, and suffered out-of-pocket losses. Unlike
Tyson Foods, the evidence for the answers to those questions is not
inaccessible or controlled by Brinker. To the contrary, that evi-
dence would be known and controlled by the plaintiffs or is at least
readily available through individualized examination. And unlike
Tyson Foods, here, the use of damages averages would deprive
Brinker of its ability to litigate individual defenses where a class
members’ individual damages are discoverable.
Considering that, under Plaintiffs’ averages methodology, a
plaintiff could be compensated for a harm he did not suffer and that
Tyson Foods does not justify the use of averages under the facts of
this case, I am left to conclude that the district court erred by ac-
cepting Plaintiffs’ damages methodology when certifying Plaintiffs’
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21-13146 BRANCH, J., Concurring and Dissenting in Part 13
proposed classes. Accordingly, I dissent from the Majority’s con-
clusion to the contrary.
* * *
In sum, while I agree with the Majority’s bottom line that
Theus is the only named Plaintiff with standing, I disagree with the
Majority’s concrete injury analysis, and I conclude that Theus suf-
fered an injury by establishing financial harm. Additionally, I dis-
sent from the Majority’s approval of Plaintiffs’ damages methodol-
ogy.