On Thursday, December 6, 2007, in a 29-page opinion, Kansas United States District Court Judge John W. Lungstrum denied a class certification motion in a proposed 18-state class action. Plaintiffs sought to certify a class of Chicago Title Insurance Company customers involved in residential real estate closings. The Plaintiffs alleged that they were injured as part of their refinancing transaction when Chicago Title over collected estimated recording fees and failed to refund $6.

The Plaintiffs reside in Kansas. Chicago Title argued that under applicable federal law, the Kansas two year statute of limitations for tort claims would apply to all claimants in the case. The Kansas statute of limitations is shorter than the limitation in many of the 18 states implicated in the case, and thus would bar many claims. Based in part upon the statute of limitations issues, the Court concluded that Plaintiffs' claims were not typical of all claims in the putative class, and in fact there were conflicts between the claims of potential class members. As a result, the Court held that the Plaintiffs were not adequate class representatives. The Court concluded: "In summary, the necessary litigation of various issues relating to Chicago Title's limitations defense defeat typicality, adequacy, predominance and superiority, here." The Court also found that the factual circumstances concerning each particular real estate closing at issue precluded a finding that common questions predominated over individual ones. As a result class certification was not appropriate.

Judge Lungstrum's Memorandum and Order provides a comprehensive decision on multi-state class certification issues in Kansas. Chicago Title is represented in the litigation by Lathrop & Gage lawyers Brian Fries, Rick Bien, and Alok Ahuja, who were assisted by Carrie Josserand, James Moloney and Steve McCartan.