Campion v. Old Republic Protection Co., No. 12-56784 (9th Cir. 2014)
Annotate this CasePlaintiff filed a class action suit against Old Republic, a company that sells home warranty plans, alleging that Old Republic arbitrarily denied claims made by him and a putative class of similarly situated policyholders of Old Republic plans, or otherwise cheated him and this class out of benefits owed under their policies. On appeal, plaintiff challenged the district court's orders denying his motion for class certification, denying his motion for leave to amend his complaint, and granting Old Republic's motion for partial summary judgment. The court did not reach the merits of the district court's order because the appeal is moot. The parties settled all of plaintiff's claims and plaintiff expressly released all of his claims against Old Republic. Applying Narouz v. Charter Commc'sn, the court concluded that the appeal is moot because plaintiff has no financial interest or other personal interest whatsoever in class certification.
Court Description: Mootness / Class Certification. The panel dismissed, as moot, Douglas Campion’s appeal from the district court’s order denying his motions for class certification and leave to amend the judgment, and granting Old Republic Protection Company, Inc.’s motion for partial summary judgment in a diversity insurance coverage action. After the district court granted partial summary judgment in Old Republic’s favor, Campion and Old Republic reached a settlement agreement, and the district court granted the parties’ joint motion and stipulation for dismissal. The panel applied the framework in Narouz v. Charter Commc’ns, LLC, 591 F.3d 1261, 1264 (9th Cir. 2010), and held that the appeal was moot because Campion, the putative class representative, had no financial interest or other personal interest whatsoever in class certification, and he lacked a personal stake where he had voluntarily settled his individual claims. The panel held that although Campion expressly retained his right to appeal the putative class claims, that fact made no difference. Judge Owens dissented from the majority’s holding that the appeal was moot, and he would hold that Campion’s appeal remained viable, even though he voluntarily settled his individual claims, because he retained a personal stake in the outcome – litigating like a private attorney general on behalf of the proposed class. Judge Owens would reach the merits and hold that Campion lacked standing to pursue injunctive relief, and that the district court correctly denied class certification.
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