The Standard Fire Insurance Company, Petitioner v. Greg Knowles (568 U.S. 588)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided March 19, 2013 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 568 U.S. 588 · 133 S. Ct. 1345
- Decided
- March 19, 2013
- Term
- October Term 2012
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Breyer
- Issue area
- Judicial Power
- Disposition
- Vacated and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice Breyer delivered the opinion of the Court. The Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 (CAFA) provides that the federal “district courts shall have original jurisdiction” over a civil “class action” if, among other things, the “matter in controversy exceeds the sum or value of $5,000,000.” 28 U. S. C. §§ 1332(d)(2), (5). The statute adds that “to determine whether the .matter in controversy exceeds the sum or value of $5,000,000,” the “claims of the individual class members shall be aggregated.” § 1332(d)(6). The question presented concerns a class-action plaintiff who stipulates, prior to certification of the class, that he, and the class he seeks to represent, will not seek damages that exceed $5 million in total. Does that stipulation remove the case from CAFA’s scope? In our view, it does not. r—I In April 2011 respondent, Greg Knowles, filed this proposed class action in an Arkansas state court against petitioner, the Standard Fire Insurance Company. Knowles claimed that, when the company had made certain homeowner’s insurance loss payments, it had unlawfully failed to include a general contractor fee. And Knowles sought to certify a class of “hundreds, and possibly thousands,” of similarly harmed Arkansas policyholders. App. to Pet. for Cert. 66. In describing the.relief sought, the complaint says that the “Plaintiff and Class stipulate they will seek to recover total…
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