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

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The corollary of these fundamental principles is that class members who cannot prove individual injury cannot recover simply because other members of the class may have been injured. A class member is not permitted “to recover damages sustained not by him, but by someone else who happens to be a member of such class.” Windham v. American Brands, Inc., 565 F.2d 59, 66 (4th Cir. 1977); see also Kelly, 308 Ill.App.3d at 644 (where only some of the batteries Sears sold were allegedly defective, plaintiff in a purported class action had to plead and prove that the battery he himself purchased was defective). Thus, plaintiffs could not properly prevail on behalf of a nearly five million-member class by persuading a jury that “global” evidence showed that State Farm somehow breached its “contract with the class.” Instead, in order to have a class at all, plaintiffs had to be able to demonstrate through common proof which class members’ contracts were breached and what losses those particular class members actually suffered. When it became obvious that plaintiffs could not possibly meet that burden, the circuit court had an obligation to decertify the class. Meineke is directly on point. In that case, as in this one, the plaintiffs recovered an enormous judgment by “portray[ing] the class at trial as a large, unified group that suffered a uniform, collective injury.” 155 F.3d at 345. The plaintiffs in Meineke created a “composite” plaintiff by presenting their case on an aggregate basis, “litigat[ing their case] not on behalf of themselves but on behalf of a ‘perfect plaintiff’ pieced together for litigation.” Id. at 344. The Fourth Circuit reversed the judgment, holding that the trial court erred in allowing the plaintiffs to portray the class as if it were a single entity with a single contract, when it was entirely possible that the defendant had breached its contract with only -46-
some class members and the issue of whose contract was breached depended on the individual facts of each transaction. Id. at 345. 24/ The same analysis applies here. It is clear that State Farm did not breach its contract with each and every member of the class. Indeed, the evidence developed through discovery demonstrated that most, if not all, of the eleven hand-picked class representatives whom plaintiffs offered at various times did not have any claim against State Farm for breach of contract. For example, plaintiffs Laurie Loger and Tammy Snider had no claims because OEM parts were installed on their vehicles, at no additional charge. R. 4524, 4530; C. 15577-80, 15914. Plaintiff DeFrank had no claim because he admitted that when he sold his vehicle, which was repaired in part with non-OEM parts specified by State Farm, he did not suffer any reduction in price due to the non-OEM parts. R. 4507W, 4507BB. Plaintiff Vickers also received full value for her vehicle — from State Farm — when she totaled it after it was repaired (in part) with non-OEM parts. R. 6342, 6358. And plaintiffs Hofer, Shadle and Avery all chose to pay for OEM parts to be installed on their vehicles — but never even attempted to prove that the particular non-OEM parts State Farm had specified 24/ See also Andrews v. AT&T Co., 95 F.3d 1014 (11th Cir. 1<strong>99</strong>6), where the court reversed the certification of a nationwide class containing millions of members, who sought to challenge the legality of hundreds of 900-number phone programs under state gambling and fraud statutes. The court rejected plaintiffs’ attempt to “lump[] together and condemn[] or absolve[]” the programs “en masse,” holding that the validity of each 900-number would have to evaluated under the law of the state in which the caller was located. Id. at 1024. Similarly, in In re Fibreboard Corp., 893 F.2d 706, 711-12 (5th Cir. 1<strong>99</strong>0), the court rejected a plan to try 3,000 asbestos claims “as a group” on the ground that such a procedure “cannot focus upon such issues as individual causation” and “[c]ommonality among class members on issues of causation and damages can be achieved only by lifting the description of the claims to a level of generality that tears them away from their substantively required moorings to actual causation and discrete injury.” -47-
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No. 5-99-0830 IN THE APPELLATE COUR
Page 3 and 4:
Charles Hester Enters. v. Illinois
Page 5 and 6:
In re Fibreboard Corp., 893 F.2d 70
Page 7 and 8:
State v. Piedmont Funding Corp., 38
Page 9 and 10:
Hansberry v. Lee, 311 U.S. 32 (1940
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1. Plaintiffs’ Body Shop Witnesse
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People v. Clayton, 302 Ill.App.3d 2
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VPHI, Inc. v. National Educ. Traini
Page 17 and 18: Okada v. MGIC Indem. Corp., 823 F.2
Page 19 and 20: Zekman v. Direct Am. Marketers, Inc
Page 21 and 22: Malooley v. Alice, 251 Ill.App.3d 5
Page 23 and 24: NATURE OF THE CASE This is an appea
Page 25 and 26: STATUTES INVOLVED Relevant portions
Page 27 and 28: to its “pre-loss condition.” DX
Page 29 and 30: OEM parts. 5/ At least two states
Page 31 and 32: paid the difference in cost out of
Page 33 and 34: epair estimate specified only OEM p
Page 35 and 36: potential class members whose names
Page 37 and 38: member’s vehicle other than those
Page 39 and 40: William Anderton, who had previousl
Page 41 and 42: categorically inferior and, in fact
Page 43 and 44: specified on their repair estimates
Page 45 and 46: Second, plaintiffs sought “instal
Page 47 and 48: parts] are inferior.” R. 12539 (
Page 49 and 50: had an adequate remedy at law if St
Page 51 and 52: loss condition. Instead of requirin
Page 53 and 54: ARGUMENT I. Class Certification Vio
Page 55 and 56: members.” Slimack v. Country Life
Page 57 and 58: of evidence State Farm would be ent
Page 59 and 60: that are incongruous with the effic
Page 61 and 62: fenders to its pre-loss condition.
Page 63 and 64: a result of Allstate’s specificat
Page 65 and 66: insurance regulators and consumer a
Page 67: have been the overwhelming predomin
Page 71 and 72: not sooner, that plaintiffs could n
Page 73 and 74: explained above, class members who
Page 75 and 76: Even if the court had been right in
Page 77 and 78: value” of “parts at the time of
Page 79 and 80: page 7, supra. All of these statute
Page 81 and 82: (7th Cir. 1995) (decertifying class
Page 83 and 84: As the circuit court itself recogni
Page 85 and 86: the same shortcut, arguing — just
Page 87 and 88: epresentatives who appeared at tria
Page 89 and 90: — was injured by the alleged dece
Page 91 and 92: Litig., 182 F.R.D. at 225. Basic fa
Page 93 and 94: Meineke’s continued financial via
Page 95 and 96: this decision, plaintiffs were excu
Page 97 and 98: corresponding OEM part. R. 7169. In
Page 99 and 100: Mathur’s testimony was particular
Page 101 and 102: end of the day, Mathur conceded tha
Page 103 and 104: Zimny, 256 Ill.App.3d 386, 390-91 (
Page 105 and 106: the jury was focused on the wrong i
Page 107 and 108: to its pre-loss condition.” R. 12
Page 109 and 110: quality of non-OEM parts. See Baltu
Page 111 and 112: which is not surprising because the
Page 113 and 114: In this case, plaintiffs’ experts
Page 115 and 116: Bender could not swear that the non
Page 117 and 118: OEM part construction “had some d
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theory, even non-OEM parts that are
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of his training or expertise”). P
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eflected a policy of “discriminat
Page 125 and 126:
“speak up for justice.” R. 1301
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12984-85. The perversion of ostensi
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Polywheels company makes both the O
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parts — was simply a made-for-lit
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In contrast, each of the 47 other s
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occurred outside Illinois. 51/ In t
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laws of the State where the policy
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This Court should follow the weight
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other states, Illinois cannot apply
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state’s law when it is not within
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headquartered in Michigan); Endo, 1
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for this Court to alter that author
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y using parts of like kind and qual
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plaintiffs’ failure to identify a
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percentage of the class (New York a
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committing fraud: if all non-OEM pa
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specification damages they had soug
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A. It Is Unconstitutional To Punish
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that will subject him to punishment
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fact benefitted from access to non-
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deterrence and therefore must be va
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517 U.S. at 576. This case is not i
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either higher premiums or the incre
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