By a unanimous vote, the Illinois Supreme Court has decertified and thus nullified a $1.2 billion class action verdict, much criticized here (Oct. 8, 1999) and in other places, which held that State Farm’s practice of specifying generic aftermarket parts after auto crashes had defrauded consumers. Among the many problems with the verdict were that the court had lumped together consumers holding a wide range of insurance policies applying different language to the handling of the aftermarket parts issue, that it had ignored wide variations among consumers in what if any harm they had suffered from the practice, and that it had applied Illinois law to policies issued mostly to consumers in states other than Illinois, some of whose regulators had specifically contemplated and approved (or even required) the use of generic parts after crashes. Martin Grace and Ted Frank comment at PoL, and discussions elsewhere include those of (again) Martin Grace and Larry Ribstein. More: Amy Joyce, “State Farm Wins Reversal of $1 Billion Suit”, Washington Post, Aug. 19.
Ill. high court tosses aftermarket auto parts verdict
By a unanimous vote, the Illinois Supreme Court has decertified and thus nullified a $1.2 billion class action verdict, much criticized here (Oct. 8, 1999) and in other places, which held that State Farm’s practice of specifying generic aftermarket parts after auto crashes had defrauded consumers. Among the many problems with the verdict were that […]
Comments are closed.