A judge's decision to certify a class against Nextel for inducing the former law firm of Leeds, Morelli & Brown into settling an employment discrimination case that harmed plaintiffs has been reversed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

The circuit said a lower court erred in finding that common issues predominated over individual ones in Johnson v. Nextel Communications, 14-454, finding instead that individual issues would “overwhelm” the rest of the case alleging that Nextel colluded with the former Leeds, Morelli & Brown, now Leeds Brown Law.

Leeds Brown is no longer part of the case, but Nextel is, and the company was handed a win Wednesday by Judges Richard Wesley (See Profile), Peter Hall (See Profile) and Gerard Lynch (See Profile), with Lynch saying, “This case arises from a novel approach to aggregate litigation that continues to provoke debate among experts of legal ethics.”