Also known as: en-bloc · as a whole · collectively
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
An interpretive principle requiring that a document, transaction, body of evidence, or group be considered in its entirety rather than through isolated parts.
Elite Dynamics refused to update its hiring software in a way that affected every applicant the same way. Emma Erickson filed a class action seeking an order forcing the company to fix the system for all users at once. The court certified the class under Rule 23(b)(2) because the requested relief would resolve the claim for the group collectively rather than member by member.
Evelyn Ellison posted a website ad claiming her firm had never lost a securities case. The statement omitted several recent adverse judgments that made the overall record materially different. A grievance committee found the communication false because the ad had to be judged as one complete message rather than by any single sentence.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Everest Holdings signed a purchase agreement and a separate side letter on the same day for the same asset sale. When a dispute arose over delivery deadlines, the court read both documents together to determine the parties' obligations instead of treating either writing in isolation.
Eduardo Enriquez and his spouse signed a premarital agreement waiving alimony. Five years later the spouse developed a disability that made self-support impossible. The court examined the entire agreement and the post-signing change in circumstances before refusing to enforce the waiver clause.
Elliot Edmonds's tenant damaged a custom chandelier that could be removed from the leased building without harming the structure. The court allowed Elliot to recover the chandelier's separate loss in value rather than measuring only the impact on the building as an undivided parcel.
Enigma Technologies homeowners formed a common-interest community with an association to manage shared roads and landscaping. When the association needed to borrow funds for emergency repairs, the court upheld the action as an exercise of the collective powers necessary to administer the entire servitude regime.
A court treats multiple writings as one document when they form part of the same transaction. The writings are then read together to determine the parties' overall intent rather than in isolation.
The court asks whether the defendant's conduct applies generally to the class so that injunctive relief can be ordered for the class as an undivided group. If the relief resolves the claim for everyone together, certification under Rule 23(b)(2) is appropriate.
Yes. The court examines the agreement as a whole and may refuse to enforce a term that was unconscionable when signed or that would cause substantial hardship after a material change in circumstances.
An advertisement is misleading if the communication taken as a whole contains a material misrepresentation or omits a fact necessary to keep the entire message from being materially misleading.
The owner may elect to recover the loss in value to the severed item itself instead of measuring only the effect on the land considered as an undivided whole.
…of past practice is that a statute found to be invalid as applied to a particular plaintiff, but not unconstitutional as a whole, is not simply "struck down" but is, instead, declared unconstitutional as applied to the fact situation before the Court. Yick Wo v. Hopkins , 118 U. S. 356 (1886); Street v. New…