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Rava v. Anheuser-Busch, Inc.

In July 2009, Partners John B. Golper and Eric C. Schwettmann and Senior Counsel John J. Manier, representing Anheuser-Busch, Inc. and Bacardi USA, Inc., defeated a motion for class certification in Rava v. Anheuser-Busch, Inc., et al. The plaintiff, a licensed attorney, sued under California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act based on a ski resort’s “Ladies Day” event in 2003, at which adult women received free ski lift tickets but adult men did not. He sought to certify a class consisting of an estimated 995 men who paid for lift tickets on “Ladies Day”. Anheuser-Busch and Bacardi were sued for allegedly “aiding or inciting” the Unruh Act violation because they sponsored a “Ladies Day” concert at the ski resort, although they had nothing to do with the resort’s giveaway of free lift tickets to women. Because there is a minimum penalty of $4,000 for each violation of the Unruh Act, class certification could have resulted in aggregate liability of $4 million or more. However, the court found a class action would not be superior to alternative means of resolving the dispute, such as individual small claims lawsuits.