Plaintiff sought to represent a class of Indiana car owners insured by the defendant whose cars were deemed total losses after collisions. Plaintiff alleged that defendant breached its contractual duty to pay the putative class members the actual cash value of their totaled cars and its alleged duty to calculate actual cash value payments using a particular method or formula. The district court certified a class on the basis that each putative class member could use common evidence to establish that defendant used an unacceptable method for calculating cash value payments. The Seventh Circuit reached a contrary conclusion, finding that a jury would need to consider a host of individual questions to pay each putative class member and that these individual questions overwhelmed any common questions. (SYKES and ROVNER, concurring)
Federal 7th Circuit Court
Civil Court
Class Certification