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ELLEN PALMER ET AL. v. FRIENDLY ICE CREAM CORPORATION (SC 17735)
Rogers, C. J., and Katz, Vertefeuille, Zarella and Schaller, Js. Argued September 5, 2007--officially released February 12, 2008

Deepak Gupta, pro hac vice, with whom were Daniel S. Blinn, Anthony J. Pantuso III and, on the brief, Brian Wolfman, pro hac vice, and Scott L. Nelson, pro hac vice, for the appellants (plaintiffs). William C. Saturley, pro hac vice, with whom were Johanna G. Zelman and, on the brief, Michael J. Rose and Jeffrey A. Meyers, pro hac vice, for the appellee (defendant).

Opinion

ZARELLA, J. The sole issue raised by this appeal is whether an order denying class certification is an appealable final judgment. The plaintiffs,1 thirty-seven persons employed as waiters or waitresses by the defendant, Friendly Ice Cream Corporation, appealed from the order of the trial court to the Appellate Court, which dismissed the appeal for lack of a final judgment. We granted the plaintiffs' petition for certification to appeal from the Appellate Court's judgment. The plaintiffs claim that a denial of class certification should be treated as a final judgment because such a denial meets the test for appealability of otherwise interlocutory orders. The plaintiffs claim that denial of class certification ends the claims of absentee plaintiffs and threatens rights they possess with respect to the class action. Because we conclude that the denial of class certification does not meet either prong of the Curcio2 test, we affirm the judgment of the Appellate Court. The following undisputed facts and procedural history are relevant to our resolution of this appeal. The plaintiffs filed a class action complaint against the defendant on October 4, 2004. The trial court, in its memorandum of decision, noted that the plaintiffs sought certification as a class to pursue their claims that the defendant had ``failed to pay servers the hourly, minimum wage mandated by General Statutes

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Connecticut Law