Clark v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance

245 F.R.D. 478, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 69853
CourtDistrict Court, D. Colorado
DecidedSeptember 18, 2007
DocketCivil Action No. 00-cv-01841-LTB
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 245 F.R.D. 478 (Clark v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Clark v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance, 245 F.R.D. 478, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 69853 (D. Colo. 2007).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

BABCOCK, District Judge.

This class certification motion is before me on Plaintiff, Ricky Eugene Clark’s, Motion for Class Certification [Docket #205], Defendant, State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company’s (“State Farm”), Response in Opposition [Docket #221], and Plaintiffs Reply [Docket # 225] and Supplemental Submission [Docket # 226].

Plaintiff moves this Court to certify the following Class pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(b)(2) and/or (b)(3):

All pedestrians who received No-Fault benefits under a Colorado State Farm automobile insurance policy where the governing policy documents at the time of the accident were issued prior to January 1, 1999. Excluded from the Class are all State Farm executives, their legal counsel, and their immediate family members, the Court and its staff, and all employees of proposed Class Counsel [Docket #205].

Oral arguments would not materially assist the determination of this motion. After consideration of the parties’ motions, briefs, and the case file, and for the reasons set forth below, I DENY Plaintiffs Motion for Class Certification [Docket # 205].

I. BACKGROUND

This case arises out of an automobile insurance dispute. On July 18, 1996, Plaintiff was struck by a vehicle driven by a State Farm insured driver. As a pedestrian, Plaintiff was insured under the driver’s Personal Injury Protection (“PIP”) policy pedestrian coverage. At the time the policy was issued, State Farm did not offer extended PIP benefits for pedestrians. Instead, State Farm provided coverage limited to $50,000.00 in medical expenses, $50,000.00 in rehabilitation expenses, up to $400.00 per week in lost wages for up to fifty-two weeks, $25.00 per day in essential services costs for up to 364 days, and death compensation up to $1,000.00. In Plaintiffs case, this amounted to $48,617.48 in medical costs, $3,376.50 in essential services, and $15,730.00 in lost wages, respectively.

On January 8, 1998, the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled in Brennan v. Farmers Alliance Mutual Insurance Co., 961 P.2d 550 (Colo.Ct.App.1998), that the Colorado Auto Accident Reparations Act (“CAARA”) required insurance companies to offer policyholders the option of buying extended PIP benefits for pedestrians of up to $200,000.00. Brennan reformed the insurance contract at issue to allow the injured pedestrian to recover the $200,000.00 in extended benefits that would have been available had they been offered. Id. at 554.

On August 24, 2000, Plaintiff brought the instant suit under Brennan on behalf of himself and all injured pedestrians who were not paid extended benefits due to State Farm’s failure to offer such benefits to its policyholders. I dismissed Plaintiffs claims on June 20, 2001, on the grounds that Brennan — by its own terms — did not apply retroactively to reform the policy in effect at the time of Plaintiffs accident some eighteen months prior. The Tenth Circuit reversed and remanded to determine the effective date of reformation and the amount of extended PIP benefits — if any — to which Plaintiff was entitled. Clark v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 319 F.3d 1234 (10th Cir.2003) (“Clark I”).

On remand, I determined the effective date of reformation to be December 19, 2003 — the date my order on remand was entered. Clark v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 292 F.Supp.2d 1252 (D.Colo.2003) (“Clark II”). Once reformed, I held the insurance policy provided Plaintiff with $200,-00.00 in aggregated PIP coverage and awarded Plaintiff $132,276.02 — the difference between the $200,000.00 aggregate policy limit and the $67,723.98 State Farm already paid to Plaintiff. Id. at 1268. In light of the [481]*481December 19, 2003, reformation date, I dismissed Plaintiffs remaining claims. Id. at 1269. The Tenth Circuit affirmed in full, Clark v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 433 F.3d 703 (10th Cir.2005), but the class certification question remains.

II. CLASS CERTIFICATION

The party seeking to certify a class must first demonstrate that all four elements of Rule 23(a) are clearly met. Shook v. El Paso County, 386 F.3d 963, 968 (10th Cir.2004). Although I must accept the substantive allegations of the complaint as true, I will not certify a class action until I am satisfied— after a rigorous analysis of the legal and factual issues presented by Plaintiffs complaint — that Plaintiff meets this burden. Gen. Tel. Co. v. Falcon, 457 U.S. 147, 161, 102 S.Ct. 2364, 72 L.Ed.2d 740 (1982); Shook, 386 F.3d at 968; Masri v. Wakefield, 106 F.R.D. 322, 324 (D.Colo.1984). This inquiry requires me to analyze the substantive claims and defenses of the parties and the essential elements of those claims and defenses. Cook v. Rockwell Int’l Corp., 151 F.R.D. 378, 381 (D.Colo.1993).

Once I am satisfied that Plaintiff meets all four elements of Rule 23(a), I then determine whether Plaintiffs action falls within one of three categories of suit set forth in Rule 23(b). Shook, supra, 386 F.3d at 971. Although Falcon only required a rigorous analysis of the 23(a) elements, the same rigorous analysis should be applied to the 23(b) elements. See, e.g., In re Initial Pub. Offering Sec. Litig., 471 F.3d 24, 33 n. 3 (2d Cir.2006) (“We see no reason to doubt that what the Supreme Court said about Rule 23(a) requirements applies with equal force to all Rule 23 requirements, including those set forth in Rule 23(b)(3)”).

Because class certification is subject to later modification, where the case is close, I will err in favor of allowing maintenance of the class action. Daigle v. Shell Oil Co., 133 F.R.D. 600, 602 (D.Colo.1990) (citing Esplin v. Hirschi 402 F.2d 94, 99 (10th Cir.1968)). If the proposed class is too broad or indefinite, I have discretion to limit or redefine the class in an appropriate manner to bring the action within Rule 23. Even if I find that all the requirements of Rule 23 are satisfied, however, I retain discretion to not certify the class if certification would be impractical. See Reed v. Bowen, 849 F.2d 1307, 1309 (10th Cir.1988); Neiberger v. Hawkins, 208 F.R.D. 301, 313 (D.Colo.2002).

A. Rule 23(a) requirements

Rule 23(a) requires a plaintiff clearly show under a strict burden of proof that (1) the class is so numerous that joinder of all members is impracticable, (2) there are questions of law or fact common to the class, (3) the claims or defenses of the representative parties are typical of the claims or defenses of the class, and (4) the representative parties will fairly and adequately protect the interests of the class. Trevizo v. Adams, 455 F.3d 1155, 1161-62 (10th Cir.2006); Reed, supra, 849 F.2d at 1309; Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(a).

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Bluebook (online)
245 F.R.D. 478, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 69853, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/clark-v-state-farm-mutual-automobile-insurance-cod-2007.