The South African Legal Resources Centre (LRC) has secured a landmark settlement in South Africa’s first certified class action. The class of applicants were comprised of 32 South African schools and the School Governing Body. They were seeking appropriate relief from the respondents – the Department of Basic Education (DBE) regarding unfilled teaching positions contrary to a collective agreement and the reimbursement of wages paid by the applicant schools to temporarily fill these positions. The LRC acted as the legal representative of the class for these purposes.
The settlement secured by the LRC will see 130 educators appointed to vacant posts in applicant schools and the reimbursement of approximately 25 million Rand to schools for payments they made to teachers who should have been paid by the DBE. The class action should result in all vacant posts being filled permanently.
The class action mechanism is not currently available to potential litigants in Ireland today. However, multi party litigation is possible in certain circumstances. At present, privately driven multi party litigation can take two principal routes, namely representative actions and test cases.
The procedure for representative actions is set out in Order 15, rule 9 of the Rules of the Superior Courts 1986, which states: "Where there are numerous persons having the same interest or matter, one or more such persons may sue or be sued, or may be authorised by the court to defend, in such cause or matter, on behalf, or for the benefit, of all persons so interested."
Unlike representative actions, the use of the test case is not governed by strict procedure. The test case my proceed in one of two ways. Firstly, the test case with the most likely chance of success and thus the possibility of the development of a favourable precedent may be chosen from a pool of potential litigants as the most appropriate to be advanced. Secondly, in instances where there is less co-ordination between a pool of litigants, the outcome of a vanguard case will be awaited by others and will provide guidance as to the possible outcome of later actions. In this instance, there is no prearranged co-ordination between the pool of litigants. The first and future cases will nonetheless be aligned, and the initial judgment will in effect operate as a test case.
Click here to read a press release on the class action settlement by the LRC.
Click here to read a paper on multi party litigation in Ireland by the Law Reform Commission.