Boyle

MEMORANDUM *

Duane Boyle and three other developmentally disabled adults (collectively Boyle) appeal the district court’s denial of class certification and dismissal of their action against Dennis Braddock in his official capacity as Secretary of the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services (hereafter DSHS). We affirm in part, and reverse and remand in part.

(1) DSHS asserts that this case has become moot because the Medicaid waiver program it refers to no longer exists, and four new Medicaid waiver programs have taken its place. By the same token, says DSHS, complaints about the four new programs are not ripe. We disagree on both counts.

The long and the short of it is that Boyle attacks problems that are endemic to the programs, old and new. Thus, this is not a case of complaining about an action that has already been completed, 1 or of the total repeal of a statute or withdrawal of a rule that was allegedly improper, 2 or a case where we cannot affect the litigants’ *576 rights. 3 Rather, it is one where the problems can be reerudescent, even if they have been voluntarily ameliorated for a time, 4 and the program differences are not significant as far as the…