Geri Siano Carriuolo v. General Motors Company

823 F.3d 977, 94 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 957, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 8962, 2016 WL 2870025
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedMay 17, 2016
Docket15-14442
StatusPublished
Cited by125 cases

This text of 823 F.3d 977 (Geri Siano Carriuolo v. General Motors Company) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Geri Siano Carriuolo v. General Motors Company, 823 F.3d 977, 94 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 957, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 8962, 2016 WL 2870025 (11th Cir. 2016).

Opinion

MARCUS, Circuit Judge:

In this interlocutory appeal, Defendant-Appellant General Motors LLC challenges *981 a district court order granting in part a motion for class certification proffered by Plaintiffs-Appellees Geri Siano Carriuolo and Peter Bracchi in their action brought pursuant to the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act (“FDUTPA”), Fla. Stat. § 501.201, et seq. The district court certified a class consisting of all Florida purchasers and lessees of 2014 Cadillac CTS sedans. On appeal, General Motors argues that the district court erroneously certified the class under Fed. R.Civ.P. 23 because: (1) there are not questions of law or fact common to the class; (2) any common questions of law or fact do not predominate; (3) a class action is not superior; and (4) the representative parties will not fairly and adequately protect the interests of the class. After thorough review, we can discern no abuse of discretion in the district court’s class certification, and, accordingly, affirm.

I.

We review a district court’s grant of class certification for abuse of discretion. Vega v. T-Mobile USA, Inc., 564 F.3d 1256, 1264 (11th Cir.2009). “A district court abuses its discretion if it applies an incorrect legal standard, follows improper procedures in making the determination, or makes findings of fact that are clearly erroneous.” Klay v. United Healthgroup, Inc., 376 F.3d 1092, 1096 (11th Cir.2004) (quotation omitted). “It is irrelevant whether this Court would have granted certification, and as long as the district court’s reasoning stays within the parameters of Rule 23’s requirements, [its] decision will not be disturbed.”' Babineau v. Fed. Express Corp., 576 F.3d 1183, 1189 (11th Cir.2009) (quotation omitted and alterations adopted). The burden of establishing the requirements of Rule 23 is on the plaintiff who seeks to certify the class. See Heaven v. Trust Co. Bank, 118 F.3d 735, 737 (11th Cir.1997). The Supreme Court has repeatedly “emphasized that it may be necessary for the court to probe behind the pleadings before coming to rest on the certification question, and that certification is proper only if the trial court is satisfied, after a rigorous analysis, that the prerequisites of Rule 23(a) have been satisfied.” Comcast Corp. v. Behrend, — U.S. —, 133 S.Ct. 1426, 1432, 185 L.Ed.2d 515 (2013) (quotations omitted). “Such an analysis will frequently entail overlap with the merits of the plaintiffs underlying claim.” Id. (quotation omitted).

II.

The facts — as alleged in the complaint— are these. In November 2013, Bracchi purchased a new 2014 Cadillac CTS sedan in Brentwood, Tennessee. In December 2013, Carriuolo purchased the same model in Sunrise, Florida. As it turns out, when these vehicles were sold, General Motors had provided — in the standardized “Mon-roney” window stickers that appear on new vehicles — inaccurate safety information. The stickers are intended to provide safety ratings assigned by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (“NHTSA”) on a five-star scale for six categories, including: (1) rollover risk; (2) the risk of injury to the driver from a frontal crash; (3) the risk of injury to the passenger in a frontal crash; (4) the risk of injury to the driver in a side crash; (5) the risk of injury to the passenger in a side crash; and (6) an overall safety rating. The Monróney stickers for certain 2014 Cadillac CTS sedans represented that each vehicle had received perfect five-star ratings in three categories: risk of injury to the driver from a frontal crash, risk of injury to the passenger from a frontal crash, and risk of rollover. No ratings were provided for the other categories. The sticker is depicted in Figure 1 below:

*982 [[Image here]]

In fact, the NHTSA had not assigned any safety ratings to the 2014 Cadillac CTS at the time of sale to class members. As acknowledged in a May 2014 letter from General Motors to Carriuolo, her vehicle displayed inaccurate safety data:

The purpose of this letter is to advise you about an inadvertent error on your vehicle’s window label with respect to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) safety ratings for your vehicle. Not all vehicles are tested by NHTSA every model year. When a vehicle is tested, however, star ratings are issued by NHTSA for frontal crash, side crash, rollover, and overall vehicle performance. All of these ratings are then placed on the window label. While Cadillac always strives for excellence in safety and quality, as of the date of this letter, the 2014 CTS Sedan has not been tested or rated by NHTSA as to its vehicle crash performance. Therefore, the vehicle does not have any star ratings from NHTSA in any category.
The window label on your vehicle correctly indicated that its overall vehicle and side crash performance were not rated. However, due to an inadvertent computer programming error, the label also indicated that your vehicle had achieved a 5-star rating for frontal crash and rollover performance. This is not correct. Enclosed is a corrected window label accurately reflecting that your vehicle has no NHTSA star ratings. If you have retained the original window label with the incorrect information, please discard it and retain the enclosed corrected label instead.

The appropriate sticker — without any rankings — is depicted in Figure 2.

FIGURE 2

*983 [[Image here]]

General Motors and dealers responded to customers expressing concern by offering “goodwill options” like automatic OnS-tar extensions, XM radio service, accessory certificates, service coupons, and vehicle repurchases. In late May 2014, General Motors asked NHTSA to test the CTS. NHTSA announced on August 6, 2014, that the CTS earned a five-star rating for five of the six safety categories, but earned a four-star rating for risk of injury to the passenger from a frontal crash.

In this action, plaintiffs claimed violations of FDUTPA, Fla. Stat. § 501.201, et seq., and the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act, TenmCode § 47-18-101, et seq.; unjust enrichment; and breach of express warranty. Plaintiffs also moved for certification of four classes: (1) a Florida class, (2) a Tennessee class, (3) a Nationwide Unjust Enrichment Class, and (4) a Multi-state Breach of Express Warranty Class.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
823 F.3d 977, 94 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 957, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 8962, 2016 WL 2870025, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/geri-siano-carriuolo-v-general-motors-company-ca11-2016.