Folks v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance

281 F.R.D. 608, 2012 WL 1059938, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 43294
CourtDistrict Court, D. Colorado
DecidedMarch 29, 2012
DocketCivil Action No. 04-cv-00243-MSK-BNB
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 281 F.R.D. 608 (Folks 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
Folks v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance, 281 F.R.D. 608, 2012 WL 1059938, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 43294 (D. Colo. 2012).

Opinion

ORDER ON RECOMMENDATION OF MAGISTRATE JUDGE

MARCIA S. KRIEGER, District Judge.

THIS MATTER comes before the Court on the Recommendation of United States Magistrate Judge (# 180), which recommends that Plaintiff Roberta Folks’s Motion for Class Certification (# 169)1 be denied on statute of limitation grounds. Ms. Folks filed a timely objection (# 183) to the Recommendation. Having considered the same, the Court FINDS and CONCLUDES as follows.

I. Jurisdiction

The Court exercises jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a).

II. Background

This case concerns efforts by Ms. Folks, a Colorado citizen, to recover Personal Injury Protection (“PIP”) benefits from State Farm for injuries sustained as a result of an automobile accident. Ms. Folks was injured in April 1998; she became a Plaintiff in this action in 2004 asserting both individual and putative class action claims. Following entry of summary judgment against her and reinstatement of the case after an appeal, as well as various twists and turns in a related class action case captioned Clark v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, Civil Action No. 00-cv-01841-LTB, discussed in further detail below, she moved for class certification. State Farm opposes class certification, arguing that this case does not satisfy the requirements of Fed.R.Civ.P. 23. In addition, it contends that Ms. Folks’ class action claims are time-barred.

The Recommendation addresses only the second issue, the timeliness of the putative class claims, and concludes that the claims are barred by the statute of limitation. As discussed further below, Ms. Clark’s lawsuit was filed after the statute of limitation had expired given the date of accrual of her individual cause of action. Nonetheless, her complaint was deemed timely because she was given the benefit of tolling during the pendency of the Clark class action. The issue presented now is whether the claims asserted on behalf of other class members were also tolled. The Recommendation concluded they were not, applying law that has not been adopted in the Tenth Circuit. Ms. Folks objected, arguing that the facts in her case are distinguishable or, alternatively, that an exception applies. The Court, however, concludes that before examining the question of timeliness, the viability of the class claims must first be resolved. Because the Recommendation did not address the merits of the certification question, this issue is analyzed de novo.2

[611]*611Therefore, in order to resolve the issues presented in the Motion for Class Certification, the Court begins with a thorough review of the background of Clark, Ms. Folks’ ease, and the principles of class action tolling.

III. Colorado’s No Fault Act and the Clark Case

A. Colorado’s Automobile Insurance Statutory Scheme

In 1973 Colorado enacted the Colorado Auto Accident Reparations Act (“CAARA” or the “No Fault Act”). See State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. v. Boellstorff, 540 F.3d 1223, 1225 (10th Cir.2008). It was repealed effective July 1, 2003. See Colo.Rev.Stat. § 10-4-726 (2003). The No Fault Act required all Colorado automobile insurance companies to include minimum PIP benefits in all insurance policies. See Colo.Rev.Stat. § 10-4-706 (2003). These PIP benefits were payable to four classes of people: (1) the named insured; (2) household relatives of the named insured; (3) passengers of the vehicle; and (4) pedestrians injured by the covered vehicle. See Colo.Rev.Stat. § 10-4-707 (2003). The No Fault Act further required insurance companies to offer all policyholders the option to choose enhanced or increased PIP benefits. See Colo.Rev.Stat. § 10-4-710 (2003). This distinction was significant because while basic PIP benefits include time and dollar cut-offs, enhanced PIP benefits do not. See Clark v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. (“Clark I”), 319 F.3d 1234, 1238 (10th Cir.2003) (noting that enhanced “PIP benefits do not place time or dollar limitations on medical expense claims and offer the possibility of greater wage loss reimbursements”). Initially, many insurance companies interpreted the statute as only requiring an offer of enhanced PIP benefits for certain classes of people covered by the policy, i.e., not for pedestrians. However, in Brennan v. Farmers Alliance Mut. Ins. Co., 961 P.2d 550, 553-54 (Colo.Ct.App.1998), the Colorado Court of Appeals determined that the No Fault Act required an insurance company to offer enhanced PIP benefits for all classes of covered individuals, including pedestrians. It also determined that the proper remedy for failure to offer enhanced PIP benefits for pedestrians was reformation of the contract to include the upper limit of coverage for pedestrians.

State Farm was one of the insurers that did not offer or pay enhanced PIP benefits to pedestrians, regardless of the level of coverage purchased by the policyholder (a practice known as the “Pedestrian Limitation”). However, after the Brennan decision was final, State Farm amended all of its policies in November 1998 to delete the limitation on pedestrian coverage. Clark v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 292 F.Supp.2d 1252, 1257 (D.Colo.2003) (“Clark II ”); Stickley v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 505 F.3d 1070, 1075 (10th Cir.2007) (“In November 1998, State Farm eliminated the Pedestrian Limitation via Endorsement 6850AJ.”).

B. The Clark Class Action

In August 2000, Ricky Clark filed a putative class action against State Farm in Colorado state court, which was thereafter removed to this Court and litigated before Judge Lewis T. Babcock. Clark, like Ms. Folks, was a pedestrian who was struck and injured by a vehicle insured by State Farm. Clark asserted claims individually and on behalf of those similarly situated, alleging that State Farm had routinely failed to offer or pay enhanced PIP benefits as required by the No Fault Act’s § 710 and by Brennan. See Clark I, 319 F.3d at 1237. In Clark I, the Tenth Circuit determined that Brennan applied retroactively and that Clark was entitled to reformation of the applicable policy. Id. at 1242.

On remand, the Court addressed Clark’s claim of reformation, holding a three-day evidentiary hearing regarding the effective date of reformation of the Clark policy. Clark v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 292 F.Supp.2d 1252, 1270 (D.Colo.2003).

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Related

Johnson v. Geico Casualty Co.
310 F.R.D. 246 (D. Delaware, 2015)
Folks v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance
784 F.3d 730 (Tenth Circuit, 2015)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
281 F.R.D. 608, 2012 WL 1059938, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 43294, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/folks-v-state-farm-mutual-automobile-insurance-cod-2012.