Full opinion text
LEVIN H. CAMPBELL, Circuit Judge. The two issues raised by this appeal are: (1) whether the action below is a class action, even though the district court never certified a class as required by Fed. R.Civ.P. 23(c)(1), and gave no notice to class members; and (2) whether the stipulation executed by the parties and approved and entered in the court record by the district court in 1977 conferred authority on the district court to regulate the care given certain patients at a separate psychiatric facility located some distance from the institution named in the original action. We hold that this suit is a class action and that the provisions of the stipulation do not apply at the other institution. SUMMARY OF FACTS AND ISSUES In 1974 Roberto Navarro Ayala (“Navarro”), a mentally retarded patient at the Psychiatric Hospital of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, a public mental health institution located in Río Piedras, San Juan (“Hospital” or “Río Piedras”), filed a complaint under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 in the District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, on behalf of himself and all others at the Hospital, asserting that the inhumane conditions there violated plaintiffs’ constitutional rights. Included as defendants were the Governor and other Commonwealth officials having control over the Hospital. In 1977, before trial, the parties executed, and the district court approved, a stipulation effectively ending the suit. The stipulation provided for numerous specified improvements in respect to what was termed the “institution and its residents.” The word “institution” was defined in the stipulation as being “The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico Psychiatric Hospital as presently constituted or in Decentralized form.” In the ensuing fourteen years, defendants have taken many steps under the supervision of the district court to comply with the terms of the stipulation. Recently, however, disputes have arisen as to the court’s right to force the defendants to apply the stipulated measures at a different facility known as the Guerrero Therapeutic Community (“Guerrero”) to which certain of the Hospital’s former patients were sent as part of the process of relieving overcrowding at the Hospital. Defendants contend (1) that the district court’s jurisdiction is limited to ordering relief to Navarro personally, the only named plaintiff, because a class of patients was never certified, and notice was never given to the class; and (2) that the stipulation currently governs only the care and treatment of patients at the Psychiatric Hospital in Rio Piedras, within the municipality of San Juan, and does not regulate the care and treatment of patients at Guerrero. In a March 6, 1990 “Opinion and Order,” the district court held that this suit was a class action. The court also reaffirmed its position that it had “jurisdiction” not only over Río Piedras but also over Guerrero in respect to the treatment and living conditions of former Río Piedras patients there. Defendants appealed from these rulings. BACKGROUND A. The Institution During the early part of the 1970s, as now, the Psychiatric Hospital in Río Pie-dras, San Juan, was one of the hospitals offering mental health services as part of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico’s Department of Health Mental Health Program. In the words of the 1977 stipulation, the Hospital offered hospitalization 24 hours a day, emergency psychiatric services and admissions, and outpatient psychiatric services. According to the stipulation, referrals came “from the Northeastern Region of Mental Health Centers of Arecibo, Manatí, Bayamón, Caguas, Carolina, Fajar-do, Humacao, San Patricio and Cayey.” (We take judicial notice that the Guerrero Therapeutic Community in dispute is located outside and to the west of the above-named communities; its locus, the city of Aguadilla, is in the northwest corner of Puerto Rico, roughly 70 miles from San Juan.) In the early 1970s the Hospital was badly overcrowded and urgently in need of improvement. According to allegations of plaintiffs’ complaint, it lacked essential physical facilities, such as lockers where patients could safely keep their personal belongings, clocks in all wards, visible calendars, lamps, night tables, lounging areas with comfortable chairs, pictures, magazines, books and other items of normal daily living. Beds in the wards did not have pillows, the laundry service was faulty, and the bathrooms and hallways were not deodorized. Patients would be placed naked in isolation rooms which lacked toilet facilities. Not only were the facilities faulty, but so, too, was the treatment. Therapeutic treatment was insufficient, as the Hospital was understaffed. Many patients allegedly did not have comprehensive habilitation plans addressed to their individual needs; and, in some wards, patients were grouped according to their geographical origin, regardless of their mental condition and needs. B. The Plaintiff “Navarro” was referred to a social worker at the Psychiatric Hospital in Río Pie-dras in 1970, when he was 19 years old because of “abnormal behavior.” After attempts to treat Navarro’s mental illness using only out-patient services had failed, his mother had him committed to the Hospital in April of 1974. C. Evolution of this Appeal On November 25, 1974, Navarro, represented by his mother, Maria Ayala, filed a complaint in the District Court for the District of Puerto Rico “on behalf of all allegedly mentally incapacitated persons now residents at the Psychiatric Hospital ... or that are receiving mental treatment in said Hospital.” The complaint contained detailed allegations criticizing conditions at the Hospital and the treatment received by patients therein; included were the allegations outlined above. The complaint alleged that these conditions at the Psychiatric Hospital violated provisions of the Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution, depriving Navarro of his right to privacy, his right not to be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment, his right not to be subjected to involuntary servitude, his right to equal protection under the law, and his right to treatment. The complaint alleged that the Psychiatric Hospital “is not a therapeutic institution. It resembles a prison....” It further alleged that the Psychiatric Hospital’s environment “is inhumane and psychologically destructive” due to overcrowding and lack of minimal physical and health facilities. Other inadequacies of the Psychiatric Hospital were delineated. While describing at length the wretched conditions at the Psychiatric Hospital, the complaint did not allege similar inadequacies at any other of the Commonwealth’s mental health facilities. The prayers in the complaint sought declaratory and injunctive relief solely at the Hospital: they requested a declaration that the Psychiatric Hospital did not meet constitutionally minimum standards; a judicial determination of what proper standards the Constitution required for residents of the Psychiatric Hospital; and an injunction against the unconstitutional conditions there. The court was asked to enjoin further admissions to the Hospital until it had determined that the Hospital met such standards as the court specified. The complaint named as defendants: Rafael Hernández Colón, as Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico; José Alvarez de Choudens, then Secretary of Health of the Commonwealth; José A. Nuñez-Ló-pez, then Assistant Secretary of Health; Erick Santos, then Director of the Commonwealth’s Psychiatric Hospital; Concep-ción Pérez, then Administrator of the Hospital Center of Puerto Rico, and their “agents, employees and/or successors in office.” 1975 — June 1977: The Stipulation The defendants answered the complaint on March 21, 1975, denying most of its allegations, including that the suit was properly a class action. The defendants also denied that the district court had jurisdiction. However, before the case could be set for pretrial in May 1977, all parties engaged in negotiations resulting in agreement on the terms of a comprehensive stipulation in settlement of the lawsuit. On April 20, 1977, they submitted the stipulated agreement for the court’s approval. The remedying of the existing conditions at the Psychiatric Hospital was the central theme of the stipulation; it included 86 standards that the parties stipulated would be observed at the Hospital. Short term plans included removal of the mentally retarded and other long term patients who did not require this type of hospital care to the Cayey and Bayamón Psychosocial and Rehabilitation Centers, and included the placement of additional patients in the foster home care program. The agreement contained no express provisions that the 86 standards, or any of them, would be effectuated at the Cayey and Bayamón facilities, nor did it mention at all the Guerrero Therapeutic Community in Aguadilla. The court approved the stipulation and on June 3, 1977 entered judgment “in accordance with all the agreements made by the parties.” Appointment of the Special Master Between July 1977 and 1984, there was little activity in the case. On January 31, 1985, the district court held a status conference, and, on February 1, 1985, entered an order granting plaintiffs request that a master be appointed. On February 8, 1985, the court appointed Dr. David Hel-feld, former Dean of the University of Puerto Rico Law School, as Special Master (“Master”). The court charged the Master to see to the carrying out of the stipulation within the shortest feasible time period. The Master periodically informed the district court of his monitoring activities, and made recommendations on ways to achieve compliance. The Master asserted in several of his recommendations that bringing Rio Piedras into compliance with the consent decree would require improvements to other facilities as well as to Río Piedras. As of November 1990, a total of thirteen reports had been filed with the district court. On April 10, 1985, a hearing was held before the Master on plaintiff Navarro’s condition. The director of the Hospital thereafter took measures to provide Navarro with the care required by the consent decree. An individual treatment plan was prepared for him. 1986 — 1990 By April 11, 1986, the Hospital was still overcrowded. The Hospital’s total census was 421, not counting 64 patients out on passes. Only 312 beds were available and, according to the Hospital’s medical director, 296 was the ideal number of patients until adequate staffing could be provided. A number of alternatives to solve this problem were discussed by the defendants and the Master. During this period the Commonwealth made available additional funds totaling $8 million for all mental health programs. After tendering his preliminary fourth report, the Master asked the defendants for a compliance proposal that would bring the case to a close. After several drafts of a compliance plan had been proposed and rejected, on June 29, 1987, the Secretary of Health submitted a third plan (“Plan 3”). Plan 3 proposed converting the Hospital into a 250-bed hospital treating only acute and subacute patients, and transferring less severe patients to outside private facilities paid for by the Department. Pressure on the emergency ward was to be relieved through the use of three ambulatory facilities. Facilities in San Patricio and Caguas, both located in the San Juan metropolitan area, would receive emergency patients from the western and southern parts of the metropolitan area, respectively. The Guerrero Therapeutic Community, located on the western side of Puerto Rico in Aguadilla, 70 miles from San Juan, would take in emergency patients from the Areci-bo area. Other Commonwealth mental health facilities were also to take responsibility for patients previously directed to the Hospital. Overcrowding would thus be eliminated, with care in other Commonwealth or private facilities provided both for many emergency and intensive care patients as well as for those patients needing residential facilities or family-care alternatives. After reviewing this proposal, the Master submitted the final version of his fourth report. The report recommended to the court that Plan 3 “be incorporated into the Court’s Order.” This report also suggested that the court take a number of actions with respect to “pre- and post-Hospital programs whose support is essential to the Hospital’s compliance with the Court’s consent order.” These actions included requiring the Secretary to report on the budget of such institutions and charging “[t]he mental health system ... with responsibility for all patients who are neither acute or subacute.” With respect to the Guerrero facility, the Master stated that “[s]ince its initial planning stage the Hospital has had a direct relationship with [Guerrero],” and therefore recommended that the court direct the defendants to set aside 144 beds in Module 7 of Guerrero for patients transferred from the Hospital. On August 5, 1987, the defendants filed exceptions and commentaries to the Master’s fourth report. While noting that “[t]he class in the present action is composed of the patients of the Psychiatric Hospital and the institutions wherever they may be referred to in a descentralization [sic] program,” the defendants asked that the court “maintain the scope of the class in the above captioned case and the stipulations agreed on by admitting from Plan 3 those portions that apply to the Psychiatric Hospital.” The defendants now claim that, through this filing, they objected to the application of the stipulation beyond Rio Piedras. On August 10, 1987, in response to the Master’s fourth report and the defendants’ exceptions thereto, the court issued an order. As suggested by the Master, the order “incorporated” Plan 3, instructed the Secretary to report on the budgets for “the Hospital and the pre- and post-Hospital programs whose support is essential to the Hospital’s compliance,” and stated that the Commonwealth’s mental health system would be “charged” with care and treatment of patients who were “neither acute or subacute.” With respect to the issue of “jurisdiction,” the court treated the defendants’ exceptions and commentaries as an objection to its “jurisdiction” over the “network of pre- and post-Hospital services.” In response to this objection, the court stated that it had no intention of concerning itself with matters not directly related to the Hospital’s compliance with the stipulation. The court added, however, that “this translates principally into a concern that pre- and post-Hospital facilities be adequately funded. There is also the related concern that patients transferred from the Hospital to transitional and psychiatric rehabilitation services receive care and treatment consistent with the 86 stipulations.” The defendants did not appeal from this order. The transfer of 144 patients to Module 7 of Guerrero took place as ordered. This transfer appears to have been part of a large scale exodus of patients from Rio Piedras. According to the Master’s tenth report, during the eight months following the court’s August 10, 1987 order, 904 patients left the Hospital. Of these, 343 were “transferred to the transitional services suited to their individual needs,” and the balance apparently left the Puerto Rico mental health system. At the same time these transfers were occurring, the Master, with the consent of the defendants, conducted several visits to various facilities, including Guerrero, (the “tripartite visits”) to assess the defendants’ progress. The Master indicated that by April 27, 1988 overcrowding at the Rio Piedras Emergency Ward had been eliminated and the PIC (Emergency) unit inaugurated. On May 23, 1988, the Master submitted his sixth report to the court. The Master stated that the acute system of care was functioning in substantial compliance with the stipulation, and that the process of deinstitutionalization had continued at a good pace and was in its final phase. Notwithstanding these improvements, plaintiffs argued in 1988 that the tripartite visits had revealed that the transitional services offered at several facilities other than Rio Piedras, including Guerrero, were in need of a strengthened program of occupational therapy. The Master, however, questioned his own authority to address that contention, stating: [t]hat the program of Transitional Services can be strengthened also is undoubtedly true, but in my opinion questions of that sort are not covered by the Consent Decree’s ... stipulations and, therefore, it would be inappropriate for this report to make findings exceeding the limited standard of comparing the Hospital and post hospital conditions of the 343 transferred patients. On June 28, 1988, the defendants submitted a motion claiming that the case should be closed because the government had substantially complied with the 1977 stipulation. The court denied this motion on December 8,1988, ruling that the Hospital was not in “full compliance.” On May 12, 1989, the Master submitted his eighth preliminary report covering the period of October 1988 to April 18, 1989. The report noted the problems faced by the Hospital in its effort to achieve full compliance. The Department of Health had not made available a sufficient number of transitional or post-hospitalization residential facilities. According to the report, the failure to provide sufficient units of transitional services was one of the principal causes for the Hospital’s failure to achieve full compliance. A number of meetings were then held between the parties and the Master to determine the substantive criteria and procedure to be followed in assessing whether full compliance had been achieved. Since no consensus was reached, each party submitted its own proposal to the Master. The Master, in his eighth preliminary report recommended to the court that an “interdisciplinary team,” consisting of a psychiatrist, a social worker, a nurse, and a,n occupational therapist, be assembled to evaluate the substantive and procedural criteria for determining compliance. On April 15, 1989, the court issued an order appointing the members of the interdisciplinary team and providing for their compensation. On June 12, 1989, plaintiffs submitted to the Master a “Motion Seeking Remedies,” alleging that former Hospital patients transferred to Guerrero were not receiving adequate treatment. The motion alleged that there was overcrowding at Guerrero, that the facilities were unsanitary and more akin to a concentration camp than a therapeutic community. The Master’s interdisciplinary team was instructed to visit Guerrero on June 19, 1989 and thereafter report to the court on its findings and recommendations regarding treatment at Guerrero. The interdisciplinary team subsequently reported that former Río Piedras patients at Guerrero lacked complete individualized treatment plans and were not receiving the benefits of an adequate psychiatric rehabilitation program. Several meetings were held between the Master and Commonwealth officials to discuss this report. The Commonwealth officials alleged that they faced problems in the recruitment and retaining of personnel due to the scarcity of professionals in the vicinity of Guerrero and the low government salaries. The defendants then, in a September 6, 1989 letter, objected to the Court’s “jurisdiction” over Guerrero. This objection was formally raised before the court in an October 20, 1989 motion. On December 28, 1989, the district court issued an opinion and order, addressing two questions. First was “whether the court has jurisdiction over patients of the Río Piedras Psychiatric Hospital who have been transferred to the Therapeutic Community at Guerrero.” Second was whether those patients had “received, or [were then receiving] adequate psychiatric rehabilitation services.” With respect to the first question, the court concluded that: The Court’s August 10, 1987 Order clarified that it had jurisdiction over Río Pie-dras Psychiatric Hospital patients transferred to Guerrero. In response to defendant’s November 20, 1989 motion, the Court now reaffirms its jurisdiction over the latter patients. This “jurisdiction” empowered the court to “secure compliance with the 86 stipulations in the Consent Decree, with the terms of the August 10, 1987 order, and all other pertinent orders issued by the Court.” Although the court stated that this conclusion was consistent with the language of the stipulation, it did not engage in any detailed analysis of that language. Instead, it based its conclusion largely on Guerrero’s role in relieving overcrowding at Rio Piedras, the parties’ actions subsequent to the drafting of the stipulation and its previous order of August 10, 1987. Thus the court stated that its conclusion was grounded on the Master’s view that the Hospital “could only comply with the stipulations if it were conceived as an integral part of a system of mental health care which, besides the Hospital, necessarily included a network of pre- and post-hospital services.” The court further stated that Plan 3, and the letter commitments of the Secretary concerning Guerrero, were proposed by the Secretary, at his initiative, accepted by the plaintiffs, adopted by the court and incorporated in the August 10, 1987 order. The court therefore held that, because of its August 10 order “incorporating” Plan 3, Plan 3 was as much a binding legal obligation as the stipulated agreement once it was incorporated in the Consent Decree. The Court’s August 10, 1987 Order does not modify the stipulated agreements, as defendants claim, but rather represents an instrument proposed by the Secretary and accepted by the court. It also serves to clarify the scope of the court’s jurisdiction, which in the case of Guerrero is explicitly included. In addition, the court found that the defendants had manifested their consent to its “jurisdiction” by failing to object to several early reports of the Master concerning the reach of the stipulations, the tripartite visits, or the visits of the interdisciplinary team. Having found that it had “jurisdiction” over former Río Piedras patients transferred to Guerrero, the court went on to address the plaintiffs’ contention that those patients were not receiving adequate rehabilitation services. The court determined that those patients “were not receiving adequate psychiatric rehabilitation services on June 19, 1987 and for an indeterminate period of time prior to that date.” However, the court was unable to determine whether those services had been adequate since September 6, 1989. Therefore, the court ordered the Master to develop “criteria for evaluating Guerrero’s rehabilitation services ... based on the stipulations, the court’s August 10, 1987 Order, and, as well, the concept of a therapeutic community as enunciated by the Mental Health Secretariat.” The court postponed its decision to fine the defendants, as requested by the Master, to a later date. On January 16, 1990, the defendants moved the court under Fed.R.Civ.P. 59(e) to alter or amend the December 28, 1989 opinion and order. The defendants argued in their motion that the district court’s “jurisdiction” could not extend beyond the scope of the stipulated agreement, that the stipulation was limited to conditions of confinement and treatment at the Río Piedras Psychiatric Hospital and, thus, that the court lacked “jurisdiction” over the network of pre- and post-hospitalization services. The defendants also argued, for the first time since their answer to the complaint in 1975, that a class of plaintiffs had never been certified as required by Fed. R.Civ.P. 23(c)(1). Plaintiffs opposed the defendants’ motion under Rule 59(e) and moved for sanctions under Fed.R.Civ.P. 11, stating that the defendants’ motion under Rule 59(e) was frivolous. On March 6, 1990, the district court issued another opinion and order reaffirming its “jurisdiction” over the network of pre- and post-hospitalization services and over former Hospital patients transferred to Guerrero for largely the same reasons as those set forth in its December 28 opinion and order. The court stated that “the stipulated agreement was never understood as limited to conditions and services exclusively within the Hospital,” and that, even if the stipulation’s application to Guerrero “is characterized as a modification, it was the [defendants’] doing in the first instance.” The district court also rejected the defendants’ assertion that it did not have “jurisdiction” over these facilities based on principles of federalism. It found the defendants’ arguments “largely irrelevant.” In the March 6, 1990 opinion and order, the court also ruled that this action had been maintained as a class action since class certification was satisfied when the court approved the stipulated agreement in April of 1977. As to notice to the class members, the district court found that the provision under Rule 23 requiring notice existed essentially to permit individuals to request exclusion from the class, or to enter an appearance through their own counsel. Even if all the patients had been notified directly or through their respective guardians, the district court found it inconceivable that any of them would have asked to be excluded from the benefits mandated by the agreement. The record reflects, the court said, that in thirteen years no patient nor his respective guardian had come forth to complain that his rights under the stipulated agreement had in any way not been represented adequately by counsel for plaintiffs in the class action, nor had any member of the class sought to be represented by his or her own counsel. Finally, the court agreed with plaintiffs’ view that the defendants’ arguments were frivolous and, pursuant to Fed. R.Civ.P. 11 and 28 U.S.C. § 1927, assessed sanctions totaling $1,500 in attorney’s fees against counsel for the defendants. It is from the March 6, 1990 order that the defendants appeal. I. CLASS ACTION Defendants contend that the suit Navarro instituted below never became a class action because a class was never certified as required by Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(c)(1). Defendants point out that the purported members of the class and their guardians were never notified of the proceedings in the case, either by counsel for plaintiff or by the court-appointed Master. Finally, defendants argue that “even though the parties entered into a stipulated agreement which the court approved, neither the stipulated agreement nor the court’s judgment approving it describe the members of the class.” Under defendants’ view, only Navarro, the individual plaintiff, was a party to the stipulated agreement, limiting defendants’ duties to providing to Navarro alone whatever services he was entitled to receive. The district court rejected this narrow characterization of the action. In its March 6, 1990 opinion and order, it held that the class action nature of this suit was implicitly certified by the court when, in 1977, it entered a judgment in accordance with the terms of the consent decree. While conceding that the court did not at the time or thereafter notify the members of the class, the district judge stated that it “would not only be inequitable, it would be absurd” to declare, thirteen years after the stipulated agreement, that a class action had not been established. The question of class certification here is not simple. See generally Pasadena City Board of Education v. Spangler, 427 U.S. 424, 430, 96 S.Ct. 2697, 2702, 49 L.Ed.2d 599 (1976) (absent certification, where named plaintiffs lost their interest in the lawsuit, case would have become moot, infra). In important public interest litigation like this, we do not know how the parties and the original judge could have overlooked a key step like class certification. Nonetheless, we are persuaded that because this case was instituted by a complaint seeking class relief, implicitly granted class relief, and was conducted for years as a de facto class action, it should and may be recognized as such. We shall address defendants’ contrary arguments. A. Class Certification under Fed. R.Civ.P. 23(c)(1) It was an egregious omission for the district court not to have determined explicitly, as soon as practicable after this action commenced, whether it could be maintained as a class action and, if so, the proper description of the class. See Fed. R.Civ.P. 23(c)(1). Certifying the class “as soon as practicable” under Rule 23(c)(1) is not a minor formality, but is necessary to give the action a clear definition. See Fed. R.CÍV.P. 23(c)(1), advisory committee’s notes to 1966 amendment. By focusing on the class issue early on, the district court identifies the plaintiffs, demarcates the boundaries of the legal dispute and makes provision to protect absent class members. In so doing, of course, the district court may take advantage, to the extent appropriate, of the parties’ own agreements and stipulations describing the nature of the suit and the existence of a class. See Willie M. v. Hunt, 657 F.2d 55 (4th Cir.1981). While express class certification is a fundamental requirement, uncertified actions have on occasion been recognized as class actions. When the parties stipulate that the action is a class action and clearly define the members of the class, and the court enters judgment pursuant to the stipulated terms, this may sufficiently imply certification for purposes of Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(c)(1). See Oburn v. Shapp, 393 F.Supp. 561 (E.D.Pa.) (holding that where the action was filed as a class action and a consent decree was entered into, entry of the consent decree was sufficient certification of the action as a class action under Rule 23), aff'd on other grounds, 521 F.2d 142 (3d Cir.1975); Bing v. Roadway Express, Inc., 485 F.2d 441, 447 (5th Cir.1973) (where the plaintiff brought an action as a class action and the district court granted class relief, but neglected to certify the class, the district court nevertheless “implicitly determined that th[e] suit would be maintained as a class action”). While the Supreme Court has yet to rule directly on the issue of implied certification, the Court has suggested, in dicta, that parties may not be able to rely on implicit class certification. Pasadena City Board of Education v. Spangler, 427 U.S. 424, 96 S.Ct. 2697, 49 L.Ed.2d 599 (1976). In Spangler, several students of a public school system sued the school board and several of its officials, alleging unconstitutional segregation. After trial, the district court entered a judgment holding that the defendants’ educational policies violated the Fourteenth Amendment, and, pursuant to the court’s order, the defendants submitted a plan for systemwide relief. Four years later, the defendants moved to modify the district court’s order. This motion was denied on the merits by the district court, 375 F.Supp. 1304 (1975), whose decision was affirmed by the Ninth Circuit, 519 F.2d 430 (1975). Before considering the merits, however, the Supreme Court noted that, because the original plaintiffs had graduated and no class had ever been certified under Rule 23, the case would be moot had the United States not intervened. The Court thus rejected the plaintiffs’ argument — raised, insofar as appears from the published opinions, for the first time in the Supreme Court — that “th[e] litigation was filed as a class action, that all the parties have until now treated it as a class action, and that the failure to obtain the class certification required under Rule 23 is merely the absence of a meaningless ‘verbal recital.’ ” 427 U.S. at 430, 96 S.Ct. at 2702. The Court stated that “while counsel may wish to represent a class of unnamed individuals still attending the Pasadena public schools ... there has been no certification of any such class which is or was represented by a named party to this litigation. Except for the intervention of the United States, we think this case would clearly be moot.” Id. (citations omitted). Any expression by the Supreme Court, whether or not in dicta, must be taken seriously. Events here, however, come much closer than in Spangler to actual class certification. Unlike in Spangler, the parties have executed, and the court has approved, a written stipulation providing not only for class-wide relief but describing those who constitute the class. The named plaintiff, Navarro, sued expressly on behalf of himself and “all allegedly mentally incapacitated persons now residents at the Psychiatric Hospital ... or that are receiving treatment in said Hospital.” The defendants, in their answer, denied, inter alia, that the suit was properly a class action. On April 8, 1975, the plaintiffs filed a memorandum of law containing detailed arguments in support of treating the case as a class action, but before the district court could rule on this motion, the parties submitted to the court on April 20, 1977 a stipulated agreement in resolution of the case. After reviewing the provisions of the stipulation, the court entered judgment on June 2, 1977 “in accordance with all the agreements made by the parties in said stipulation.” One of the agreements so made by the parties was the stipulated definition of “residents” of the Hospital (for whose benefit the operative clauses of the consent decree were drafted) as “[a]ll persons who are now patients and all persons who may in the future receive treatment or habilitation at such institution.” Once the plaintiffs and defendants stipulated to these matters, and the court entered judgment in accordance with their written stipulation, the class nature of the suit was, in practical effect, “established.” The remedies in the stipulation clearly went far beyond the individual needs of the named plaintiff. It was fashioned as an instrument for Hospital-wide change, affecting all patients at Río Piedras, not just one patient. Consistent with the stipulation, the sweeping hospital improvements later undertaken by the court, Master and parties were directed at benefiting the entire patient class, not simply at helping the named plaintiff. Had defendants or the court not believed this was a class action, they would hardly have taken the measures they did for thirteen years nor would defendants have failed to raise the issue until now. The stipulation, moreover, specifically describes the class members who are to benefit from the stipulated relief. Supra. No stipulated agreement or definition appeared in Spangler. Thus, the stipulation served the purpose of Rule 23 — “to give clear definition to the action,” Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(c)(1) advisory committee’s notes to 1966 amendment — even though it did not use the words “class” as such. Another difference between this case and Spangler is that, in the proceeding from which this appeal was taken, the question of whether this was a class action was presented to the district court, which found that it was. The defendants had argued the contrary position to the court. The court concluded that, while the original judge had never expressly certified a class, a class had been intended and was defined in the stipulation, and that the court, the parties and the Master had continuously viewed and treated the case as a class action. Thus the court of appeals is not being asked to imply certification for the first time on appeal from whatever it can discern of the actions of the parties below, as in Spangler. Rather the matter of class certification comes to us, after adversarial presentation below, with the benefit of a district court finding. The situation is close to that where a district court certifies a class retroactively after judgment, having inadvertently failed to act earlier on a certification motion. See Gurule v. Wilson, 635 F.2d 782, 790 (10th Cir.1980); Marshall v. Kirkland, 602 F.2d 1282, 1301 (8th Cir.1979). Thus, notwithstanding the concerns Spangler raises, we think it proper to uphold the district court’s ruling sustaining the class nature of this suit. We hold that the action may proceed as a class action. B. Notice to the Members of the Class Defendants also complain that neither the patients nor their guardians were given any notice regarding the proceedings in this case, either by counsel for the plaintiff or by the court-appointed Master. Defendants appear to focus on Rule 23(e), but since Rule 23(d)(2) as well as Rule 23(e) refers to notice, we review the arguments under both. Rule 23(d)(2) indicates that notice is not mandatory, but may be required by the court. “Subdivision (d)(2) does not require notice at any stage, but rather calls attention to its availability and invokes the court’s discretion. In the degree that there is cohesiveness or unity in the class and the representation is effective, the need for notice to the class will tend toward a minimum....” Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(d), advisory committee’s notes to 1966 amendment. Hence, the notice contemplated under Rule 23(d)(2) is discretionary. Penson v. Terminal Transport Co., 634 F.2d 989, 993 (5th Cir.1981); United States v. Allegheny-Ludlum Industries, Inc., 517 F.2d 826, 878 n. 86 (5th Cir.1975), cert. denied, 425 U.S. 944, 96 S.Ct. 1684, 48 L.Ed.2d 187 (1976). Commentators have stated that adequate representation alone will comply with the due process demands of the rule, obviating constitutional need for notification of class certification. H. Newberg, Newberg on Class Actions, § 8.16 (2d ed. 1985). Thus, Rule 23(d)(2) did not require the district court to give notice of class certification to the patients or their guardians. The language of Rule 23(e), on the other hand, directs that notice be given to “all members of the class” before dismissal or compromise of a class action. Here, although the stipulation effectively compromised the case, the district court entered judgment under the stipulation without first giving notice to class members. But while Rule 23(e) directs the giving of notice, it leaves the form of the notice to the court’s discretion; for this reason, courts have sometimes overlooked the absence of notice where there was clearly no prejudice to class members. See, e.g., Larkin General Hospital, Ltd. v. American Tel. & Tel. Co., 93 F.R.D. 497, 502 (E.D.Pa.1982) (dismissal of class action without notice said to be without prejudice to class). More important, where a cohesive class is certified under Rule 23(b)(2), notice may suffice if given to a suitable class representative. See Walsh v. Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., Inc., 726 F.2d 956, 962 (3d Cir.1983). We think that Puer-to Rico Legal Services, which was counsel for Navarro and the class, may be considered a suitable representative for notice purposes here, at least where, as found, there have never been complaints from putative class members. Counsel monitored and actively participated in the settlement, which has resulted in significant benefits to the patient class. Counsel obviously saw itself as representing the entire patient class at the Hospital, and not just the named plaintiff. The lack of notice argument is particularly inappropriate coming, as it does, not from injured class members but from officials seeking to use the lack of notice as a basis for resisting the granting of relief to the plaintiff class. To uphold defendants for failure of notice to class members would be to wield the notice requirement as a sword against those it was meant to help. We hold, in sum, that this suit is properly a class action brought in behalf of all persons who were patients when suit was brought and all persons who may in the future receive treatment or habilitation at the Psychiatric Hospital in Río Piedras. II. APPLICATION OF THE STIPULATION TO GUERRERO The second issue is whether the district court correctly determined that the terms of the stipulation can be enforced in respect to former Hospital patients now residing at the Guerrero Therapeutic Community, a separate institution located in the city of Aguadilla, approximately 70 miles from the Hospital. The court ruled that the stipulation entered in 1977 applied to Guerrero in respect to the approximately 144 patients transferred there from Rio Piedras. The court therefore concluded that it had “jurisdiction” over Guerrero, and that the Master should consider how the stipulation (although written chiefly in terms of the needs of Río Piedras) should be applied to the rehabilitation services offered at Guerrero. We hold that neither the terms of the stipulation nor the subsequent actions of the parties make the stipulation applicable at Guerrero. A. Standard of Review The present case was not resolved by judicial rulings and findings but by a court-approved stipulation. Whether the remedial provisions of the stipulation, and the district court’s oversight, extend to Guerrero are, therefore, matters of interpreting that stipulation. This, in turn, raises the question whether, on appeal, this court owes special deference to the district court’s interpretation, over and above the deference we would normally give to a lower court’s construction of a contract. We think not, as the institutional coverage of the stipulation goes to the very heart of the parties’ original bargain. We recognize that this court has said that district courts enforcing public law consent decrees have, in general, broad discretion in determining such matters as whether the objectives of the decree have been substantially achieved. United States v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 890 F.2d 507, 509 (1st Cir.1989). Unlike consent decrees entered into in commercial litigation, which are to be construed throughout like a contract, id., the interpretation of broad, programmatic decrees entered into in public law litigation will often warrant a more flexible approach. AMF, Inc. v. Jewett, 711 F.2d 1096, 1101 (1st Cir.1983). Thus, “in examining a decree issued in public law litigation ... the appellate court should recognize that broad ‘judicial discretion may well be crucial’ for the district judge to secure complex legal goals.” Massachusetts Association of Older Americans v. Commissioner of Public Welfare, 803 F.2d 35, 38 (1st Cir.1986) (citations omitted). In Langton v. Johnston, 928 F.2d 1206 (1st Cir.1991), we elaborated the rationale behind these two different standards for interpreting consent decrees: This double standard derives from the realities of human experience. Different types of consent decrees are ordinarily conceived and hatched in markedly different ways. In a commercial setting, a consent decree is treated like a contract because the court assumes that private parties understand the economic realities and business consequences of their agreements.... In public law litigation, courts typically play a proactive role — a role which can have nearly endless permutations.... Frequently, the trial court's adjudicative function blends with its service as an instrument for change. The relief requested often involves the restructuring of a state or city program, requiring the court to fashion equitable remedies— sometimes unique and often complicated — in order to secure ‘complex legal goals.’ ... We agree with Professor Chayes that, in the public law context, the consent decree ‘provides for a complex, ongoing regime of performance rather than a simple, one-shot, one-way transfer.... It prolongs and deepens, rather than terminates, the court’s involvement with the dispute.’ Chayes, The Role of the Judge in Public Law Litigation, 89 Harv.L.Rev. 1281, 1298 (1976).... Id. at 1221. The above might at first glance appear to require deference to the judgment of the district court in this case as to the scope of coverage of the present stipulation. However, we see a critical distinction here based on the nature of the question. The rule of broad discretion in public interest cases is designed to give the district court flexibility in deciding exactly how the numerous conditions of a complex consent decree are to be implemented in practice. In overseeing broad institutional reform litigation, the district court becomes in many ways more like a manager or policy planner than a judge. Over time, the district court gains an intimate understanding of the workings of an institution and learns what specific changes are needed within that institution in order to achieve the goals of the consent decree. In Commonwealth of Massachusetts, for example, the district court needed considerable leeway to decide whether the Commonwealth’s remedial plan for providing periodic evaluations of the patients was sufficiently specific. 890 F.2d at 509. In Older Americans the district court, in ruling on a contempt motion, needed discretion to decide whether a state’s new policy for deciding whether to terminate AFDC benefits would suffer from the same deficiencies as the former termination policy which had given rise to the litigation. 803 F.2d at 39. And the Langton district court, also ruling on a contempt motion, required discretion to decide whether a treatment center had sufficiently implemented the educational, vocational, recreational and therapeutic programs required by a consent decree. 928 F.2d at 1211-17. However, the issue now presented differs markedly from the issues that were before the district courts in Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Older Americans and Langton. Here the issue is at what public institution or institutions the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, in agreement with plaintiffs, consented to sponsor and finance sweeping remedial measures under the aegis of the federal court. The rationale for deferring to the decision of a district court, that its involvement with the ongoing case makes it best able to decide issues concerning institutional management and compliance, should not control an issue, like this one, which involves determining the scope of the parties’ original bargain. If this were not so, the making of a consent decree would, from the government’s point of view, be a game of Russian roulette, since there could be no predicting the circumstances which might lead the judge, a decade or so later, to enlarge the areas of his own control. Ordinary contract principles, involving determination of the parties’ intent when they entered into the stipulation, are the appropriate interpretative guideposts here. Especially is this so given that the reach of the stipulation brings along with it the oversight jurisdiction of the federal courts. Principles of federalism weigh against a rule of district court deference which could result in enlarging federal jurisdiction beyond the parties’ original understanding. One of the contracting parties here was, in effect, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, which now strenuously objects to the district court’s interpretation. Especially where there has been no trial finding of unconstitutionality at any institution, the stipulation must limn the proper boundaries of the federal writ and must be scrupulously honored. The Supreme Court has emphasized that “although the ‘remedial powers of an equity court must be adequate to the task, ... they are not unlimited,’ Whitcomb v. Chavis, 403 U.S. 124, 161, 91 S.Ct. 1858, 1878, 29 L.Ed.2d 363 (1971). One of the most important considerations governing the exercise of equitable power is a proper respect for the integrity and function of local government institutions.” Missouri v. Jenkins, 495 U.S. 33, 110 S.Ct. 1651, 1663, 109 L.Ed.2d 31 (1990). In enforcing a consent decree, a district court must remain “aware of ... the need to strike a proper balance between the integrity of the Consent Decree and the principles of federalism.” Duran v. Elrod, 713 F.2d 292, 297 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 465 U.S. 1108, 104 S.Ct. 1615, 80 L.Ed.2d 143 (1983). Here, our concern for principles of federalism is at its highest because we are dealing not with the details of implementing a clearly applicable consent decree, but with the question of whether the consenting parties, including officials of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, ever understood that the relief set out would apply at another, unmentioned institution. The issue is not, as in other cases, whether the defendants have conceded to the court authority to implement a particular policy in an institution already surrendered to the general authority of the court. Rather, the issue concerns a much greater threat to the Commonwealth’s sovereignty, whether it has voluntarily surrendered to the federal court its authority over the institution at all. We conclude that the question of the district court’s power over Guerrero is an issue to be decided under ordinary contract rules. Appellate review of contract interpretation is ordinarily plenary, Fashion House, Inc. v. K Mart Corp., 892 F.2d 1076, 1083 (1st Cir.1981). We, therefore, proceed carefully to scrutinize the stipulation and the actions of the parties to determine whether the stipulation applies at Guerrero. B. What the Stipulation Originally Provided The stipulation defines the term “institution” as “[t]he Commonwealth of Puerto Rico Psychiatric Hospital as presently constituted or in Decentralized form” and then goes on to specify 86 conditions that must be met at the “institution.” The question is whether this definition of the term “institution” includes Guerrero. It is clear that neither in 1977 nor at any later time was Guerrero the “... Hospital as presently constituted.” Can it be viewed as having become the “... Hospital ... in Decentralized form?” The plaintiffs suggest that when the definition of “institution” was drafted in 1977, the parties had in mind the “decentralizing” of Río Piedras Hospital by transferring some of its emergency and other outpatient services to other facilities, placing some of its existing patients elsewhere, and diverting others who might become new patients. Plaintiffs go on to urge that such actions would cause the Hospital in “decentralized form” to become, besides Río Piedras itself, any and all pre- and post-Hospital facilities within Puerto Rico serving or receiving patients who would formerly have been served by the Hospital or might have stayed there. Thus, Guerrero, which particularly (but by no means exclusively) came to serve a “post-Hospital” or “transitional” function, thereby relieving demands on Río Piedras, is said to have become, functionally, a “decentralized form” of Río Piedras Psychiatric Hospital, and hence subject to all the relief imposed by the stipulation upon that institution. We have fundamental difficulty with this reasoning. First, we do not think that a distant mental health facility, distinct from the Hospital, and with no administrative connection therewith, would normally be considered the “... Hospital ... in Decentralized form.” There is no evidence of any special relationship between the Hospital and Guerrero other than an arrangement, tendered initially by defendants and now enforced by the court, that it would provide 144 places to accommodate Hospital overflow. If the mere receipt of patients from the Hospital, or otherwise destined for the Hospital, is sufficient to transform an institution into “[t]he Commonwealth of Puerto Rico Psychiatric Hospital ... in Decentralized form,” then every other public facility receiving one or more such patients becomes theoretically subject to the 86 reform standards set out in the stipulation, or, at least, to a visit from the Master to determine how much of the stipulation it is possible to apply there. Such a construction would cause the tail to wag the dog. As we discuss below, most of the stipulation was drafted rather obviously for application at the Hospital. Any such construction as we have mentioned would result in placing the federal court in essentially standardless control of many of the mental health institutions around Puerto Rico, simply because of the presence there of one or more former Río Piedras patients. A further reason to doubt this unnatural reading of the stipulation is that it far exceeds the relief sought by the plaintiffs in their complaint. The chief evidence of what plaintiffs were seeking when they agreed to the stipulation lies in the complaint, in which plaintiffs outlined the relief sought in their lawsuit. The complaint speaks of overcrowding, understaffing, poor living conditions, and inadequate care and treatment of patients at “the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico Psychiatric Hospital” (i.e., what we also call the “Hospital” or “Río Piedras”). In its prayers, the complaint seeks declaratory and injunc-tive relief at (specifically and repeatedly) the Psychiatric Hospital alone. Far from mentioning the treatment of patients outside the Hospital, or the treatment of removed Hospital patients at other places, it seeks an injunction against further admission of patients to the Psychiatric Hospital until conditions there are improved. There is no reference whatever to decentralized facilities or decentralization in the complaint. The complaint makes clear that the sole object of the lawsuit is to improve conditions at the Psychiatric Hospital. It seems reasonable, therefore, to assume that this, too, was the object of the stipulation entered into by way of settlement of that suit. If so, we think the term “... Hospital ... in Decentralized form” deserves a less ambitious reading than is now urged. The parties might simply have meant a reconstituted Hospital composed of separate administratively linked components. Or they may have thought that several quasi-independent facilities would operate bearing the original name of the Psychiatric Hospital. The fact is, no one knows. Lacking any further explanation of what was meant, we do not believe that this curious and totally unclear terminology can now bear the burden of including facilities around Puerto Rico whose only link with the Hospital is the receipt or diversion of some of its former or would-be patients. The substantive provisions of the stipulation likewise offer little support for the proposition that it was meant to apply beyond the Hospital proper. To the contrary, the stipulation bears overwhelming evidence that the standards therein were drafted to apply at the Hospital — understandably, since conditions at the Hospital were the sole target of plaintiffs’ complaint. First, several of the stipulation’s provisions equate the “institution” — the entity to which the stipulation applies — with Rio Piedras. In section “B-III”, describing ha-bilitation plans, the stipulation states that The Mental Health Centers which refer patients to the San Juan Psychiatric Hospital shall make a preliminary evaluation of the mental condition of such patient. Each patient who is referred to the institution must be preliminarily evaluated by the Emergency Room Physician prior to admission to determine whether he should be admitted. In this passage the parties appear to have used “San Juan Psychiatric Hospital” and “institution” interchangeably. If the term “institution” were not synonymous with Río Piedras, then these two sentences would refer to two different entities, which, in context, would not make sense. Likewise, Section “B-IV” contains a detailed description of the Río Piedras facility, discussing the number of wards there and the number of patients, showers and toilets in each ward. It then goes on to state that “[u]ntil such time as the physical facilities at the institution can be habilitat-ed to provide in each ward multi-resident rooms of no more than 10 patients, and one toilet, lavatory, and shower for every 10 patients, the following physical improvements shall be provided....” (emphasis added). By following the description of deficiencies at Río Piedras with a specific proposal for improving conditions at the “institution,” this paragraph, like that discussed above, equates the term “institution” with the Río Piedras Hospital alone. Not only does the stipulation equate the “institution” with Río Piedras in two places, several of its substantive provisions underscore the intention to apply to Rio Piedras. For example, as noted above, the stipulation contains a detailed description of the existing physical facilities at Rio Piedras immediately preceding the list of physical standards to be observed prospectively. This indicates that the physical standards (and, by implication, the rest of the standards) were thought of as applying to Río Piedras. Even assuming the standards are general enough to apply to any facility, the drafter would not likely have preceded these general standards with a detailed description of Río Piedras if he had intended the standards to apply anywhere but at Río Piedras. Moreover, this physical description of Río Piedras cannot be viewed as some sort of boilerplate language merely intended to introduce a set of general physical standards. The stipulation is divided into two overall parts, part “A,” containing an introductory description of conditions then existing at Río Piedras, and part “B,” containing a list of standards to be observed in the future. Thus, if the physical description of Río Piedras were merely boilerplate, one would expect it to appear somewhere in part “A,” not immediately preceding the operative physical standards in part “B.” Another part of Section “B-IV” makes specific reference to two other facilities, Cayey and Bayamón, mandating that 200 patients be moved from Río Piedras to those named facilities. Yet the stipulation does not state that its standards are to apply to those facilities. If it were the intent of the parties that Cayey and Bay-amón be regarded as part of a decentralized Rio Piedras, and hence subject to the stipulation, surely a draftsman would have made this point more clearly than by the single use of the term “decentralized form” in the definitional section. Indeed, this would have been the logical place in the agreement to clarify the requirements applicable to an institution such as Guerrero. The total lack of mention of this concept in reference to Cayey and Bayamón seriously undercuts the plaintiffs’ current arguments on this score. In addition to these particular provisions, the entire structure of the stipulation indicates that it is aimed specifically at the Rio Piedras Hospital. The stipulation is divided by two headings: “A. FACT SITUATION” and “B. STANDARDS TO BE OBSERVED AT THE PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL AND TIME SCHEDULE FOR COMPLIANCE” (boldface added). The definítion of “institution” and the entire list of standards are contained under heading “B,” whose title indicates that the definition and standards are to apply only to the “Psychiatric Hospital,” i.e., Río Piedras. As one of two organizational headings, and the heading which preceded all of the specific stipulations, heading “B” was a fairly important piece of language. If the drafter had been concentrating on producing a document designed to cover other facilities, he would likely have used a term such as “Standards to be Observed at all Covered Facilities,” or something to that effect. That the stipulations begin with the term “Standards to be Observed at the Psychiatric Hospital ...” indicates that the drafter was concerned with the existing Río Pie-dras facility or, at least, some later aggregate of facilities constituting a recognizable successor to the current Hospital. We conclude, therefore, that the stipulation, as drafted, did not encompass Guerrero. While Guerrero and many other institutions have taken overflow from the Hospital, they have not, in any meaningful sense, become its operational components. They are not now the “Commonwealth of Puerto Rico Psychiatric Hospital ... in Decentralized form.” This is not to question the right of the court to require the Commonwealth to accept Hospital patients at other facilities, as part of the necessary plan to bring the Hospital in con