Heastie v. Community Bank of Greater Peoria

125 F.R.D. 669, 1989 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5901, 1989 WL 60696
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedMay 22, 1989
DocketNo. 88 C 0358
StatusPublished
Cited by52 cases

This text of 125 F.R.D. 669 (Heastie v. Community Bank of Greater Peoria) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Heastie v. Community Bank of Greater Peoria, 125 F.R.D. 669, 1989 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5901, 1989 WL 60696 (N.D. Ill. 1989).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

ASPEN, District Judge:

Currently before the Court is the plaintiff Rosetta Heastie’s motion for certification of two classes.1 Mrs. Heastie has requested class certification only in connection with Counts I—III of the Complaint. For the reasons set forth below, the motion for class certification is granted.

I

Facts2

Mrs. Heastie alleges that in late 1985, a representative of U.S. Satellite Systems, Inc. came to her home and convinced her to purchase a satellite dish antenna. On December 4, 1985, Mrs. Heastie signed a “cash sales contract” with U.S. Satellite, setting a purchase price of $4,000.00. The contract provided that the $4,000.00 was “payable on completion,” but also provided, somewhat contradictorily, that “Customer has option to accept payments of $73.94 at 120 months.” Mrs. Heastie did not have $4,000.00, and told U.S. Satellite this, and both parties contemplated that she would pay for the antenna in more than four installments. The U.S. Satellite representative therefore told Mrs. Heastie that U.S. Satellite would find financing for her on the terms stated in the contract.

According to Mrs. Heastie, however, there were certain problems with this transaction. First, although required to do so by the Illinois Consumer Fraud Act, Ill.Rev.Stat. ch. 121%, para. 262B (1987), U.S. Satellite did not provide Mrs. Heastie with written notice of her right to cancel the contract within three business days. Nor did it provide the disclosure statements required by the Federal Truth in Lending Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1601 et seq., and by the accompanying regulations commonly known as Regulation Z, 12 C.F.R. pt. 226. In addition, the contract that Mrs. Heastie signed contained a rather stiff liquidated damages provisions, which allowed U.S. Satellite to charge 25% of the purchase price or its actual losses if Mrs. Heastie cancelled “for any reason whatsoever.”

More than three business days after Mrs. Heastie signed the contract, and after the state-mandated cancellation period had passed, U.S. Satellite informed her that it had found financing from Community Bank of Greater Peoria (“Community Bank”), one of the defendants here. The loan papers that U.S. Satellite delivered to Mrs. Heastie contained more onerous provisions than the cash sales contract signed on December 4. For example, the loan provided for monthly payments of $77.78, rather than the $73.94 promised in the cash sales contract, and provided for a second mortgage on Mrs. Heastie’s home. Mrs. Heastie, believing she was obligated to pay U.S. Satellite $4,000.00, felt she had no option [672]*672but to sign the loan papers, even with the more onerous conditions.

Mrs. Heastie now contends that she was not alone. According to her complaint, Community Bank had entered into “a tacit agreement” with U.S. Satellite and other contractors. Under the purported agreement, the contractors would enter into contracts with consumers, promise to find financing on relatively favorable terms, wait until the three day cooling-off period had expired, and then steer the consumers to Community Bank. Community Bank then entered into loans on terms more onerous than those originally contracted for.3

Mrs. Heastie also contends that Community Bank would attempt to coerce or deceive consumers into paying, even though the contractors failed to fulfill their part of the contract. In Mrs. Heastie’s case, the U.S. Satellite workers damaged Mrs. Heastie’s roof while installing the satellite dish, and the satellite dish proved useless after being installed. Mrs. Heastie made some payments, but then notified Community Bank that she would make no further payments for the defective antenna. Community Bank insisted on payment, however, and threatened to foreclose on Mrs. Heastie’s home unless she refinanced the arrearage. Community Bank apparently relied on a provision in one of Mrs. Heastie’s loan documents, which stated that she was responsible for selection of the contractor, and that Community Bank was not responsible for any failure to perform or defective work on the part of the contractor. According to Mrs. Heastie, this provision, which we shall refer to as the “non-responsibility clause,” violated the Federal Trade Commission’s “holder in due course rule,” 16 C.F.R. pt. 433, which provides that a lender in a consumer transaction is under certain circumstances subject to the same defenses as the seller of the goods or services. Mrs. Heastie contends that Community Bank was subject to the holder in due course rule, but nonetheless insisted on payment even though the satellite dish was defective. Mrs. Heastie was forced to refinance her loan, but the circumstances surrounding the refinancing are not part of the class allegations in this case and will not be discussed in this opinion.

Mrs. Heastie claims that the events pleaded are part of a business practice that Community Bank carried on with the cooperation of various contractors. Accordingly, she sued Community Bank; Community Financial Services, Inc., which serviced the loans for Community Bank; and U.S. Satellite. (We will generally refer to Community Bank and Community Financial Services collectively as “Community Bank.”) Mrs. Heastie contends that Community Bank’s “bait and switch” schemes violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”), 18 U.S.C. §§ 1961-1968 (1982 Supp. V 1987) (Count I) and the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive [673]*673Business Practices Act, Ill.Rev.Stat. ch. 121%, paras. 261-267 (1987) (Count II). Mrs. Heastie also contends that Community Bank and U.S. Satellite similarly schemed to avoid the FTC’s holder in due course rule, thus violating the Illinois Consumer Fraud Act. (Count III).4 U.S. Satellite previously settled the claims against it, and we approved the settlement after a fairness hearing on July 1, 1988.

Mrs. Heastie now seeks the certification of two classes. Mrs. Heastie’s definition of the two proposed classes will be detailed below, but we observe here that the first class applies to Counts I and II, while the second class applies to Count III.

II

Class Actions In General

Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure establishes a two-step procedure to determine if a class action is appropriate. The Court must first determine if the class meets the four preliminary requirements of Rule 23(a):

(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.

In addition, a class action that satisfies all four of the Rule 23(a) requirements must also qualify under one of the three subsections of Rule 23(b). Mrs. Heastie seeks certification of the first class under Rule 23(b)(3), which provides that a class action is proper if

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Bluebook (online)
125 F.R.D. 669, 1989 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5901, 1989 WL 60696, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/heastie-v-community-bank-of-greater-peoria-ilnd-1989.