No. 5-99-0830 IN THE APPELLATE COURT OF ... - Appellate.net

to its pre-loss condition.” R. 12874-75. In rebuttal, however, plaintiffs’ counsel characterized
State Farm’s position as “nonsense,” stating that it was “not our burden in this case” to prove
that every one of the millions of non-OEM parts specified by State Farm was inferior. R.
12987. He argued that plaintiffs were required to prove only that “it is more probably true
than not true that State Farm broke its promise to the class of like kind and quality parts,”
id., again without providing any explanation as to what that meant.
As a result of the inadequacy of the instructions, the jury was left to its own devices
to decide what level of proof was required in order to render judgment in favor of the entire
class. Because the court also refused to propound any of State Farm’s suggested jury
interrogatories — which would have inquired as to whether the jury had found that State
Farm had breached its contracts with either the class representatives individually or all of
the members of the class (R. 12596) — there is no way of knowing what standard the jury
in fact chose to apply. Under those circumstances, State Farm is entitled, at the very least,
to have the breach of contract judgment vacated. Because it is apparent that plaintiffs cannot
meet their burden of proof on a classwide basis without inquiring into the individual facts
of each transaction, however, the circuit court should be ordered to decertify the class.
C. The Circuit Court Erred In Admitting Baseless Opinion Testimony
Purporting To Show The Universal Inferiority Of Non-OEM Parts.
Although plaintiffs convinced the court not to instruct the jury that they were
required to prove the inferiority of all non-OEM parts in order to obtain a verdict against
State Farm, at trial plaintiffs did attempt to prove that proposition. Their evidence, however,
consisted largely of gross generalizations by witnesses who did not have the expertise or the
data on which to base their sweeping opinions. Such testimony would not have been
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