Legal Standing of Associations to Sue

Legal Standing of Associations to Sue By Chris Micheli

What is “legal standing”? Sometimes known by the Latin term, locus standi, it is the right of a person or entity to file a lawsuit or participate in a legal proceeding in state or federal court. It is essentially a legal threshold that must be met before a court can consider the merits of the lawsuit that has been filed.

            As a general rule, in the federal court system, there is a requirement that a “case or controversy” exist. On the other hand, in California, no such requirement exists because the California Constitution does not contain a “case or controversy” requirement and the courts do not consider public interest standing to violate the California Constitution’s separation of powers doctrine in Article III, Section 3.

Nonetheless, similar to the federal “case or controversy” requirement, California’s standing requirement serves “to ensure that the courts will decide only actual controversies between parties with a sufficient interest in the subject matter of the dispute to press their case with vigor.” So, what is the standing requirement for an association to sue in state court?

            The California Supreme Court has decided this matter to instruct us how an organization has standing to enforce or to challenge a state action. An association (whether a business, union, or other entity) is allowed to sue on behalf of its members, even though the association itself may not have actually suffered any harm from the challenged state action.

Our state’s high court has explained that an association will have standing to file a lawsuit on behalf of its members if three main tests are met. The first requirement is that at least one member of the association could have met the “private interest standard” if the member had sued as an individual. This test is usually met when an association member files a sworn declaration explaining that the challenged action would harm them.

Second, the association must demonstrate that it is attempting to protect the interests of the association’s stated purpose(s) of existence. In other words, are the association’s interests in filing the lawsuit germane or related to the purpose for which the association exists?

And, third, there must be a showing that neither the claim(s) asserted in the lawsuit nor the relief requested would require the association’s individual members to participate in the lawsuit being filed. This three-part test for associational standing is similar to the test under federal law.

Assuming these three requirements are met, then an association has “standing” to sue on behalf of its members in either state or federal courts as a general rule.

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