Sixth Circuit Vacates Certification of a Sprawling Multistate Class of GM Vehicle Owners Alleging Transmission Defects
In Speerly v. GM, LLC , the Sixth Circuit en banc reversed a district court’s order certifying a class and multiple subclasses to assert various state law claims alleging defects in GM’s Hydra-Matic 8-Speed Transmission in vehicle models sold between 2015 and 2019 — in all, 26 state-wide subclasses with a total of 59 state-law claims on behalf of roughly 800,000 individual car buyers. The class had identified two problems with the transmission: (i) the transmission fluid absorbed moisture, changing its viscosity and causing gear shift slippage; and (ii) the transmission control module caused vehicles to lunge forward or “shudder.” Before addressing the substantive elements of each cause of action, the court explained that the district court must “answer merits questions that bear on Rule 23’s demands.” The Rule 23 analysis “will inevitably address issues that overlap with the merits inquiry” because the “element-by-element, claim-by-claim inquiry” required for the commonality and predominance inquiry “implicates the merits of each claim.” Therefore, the Panel noted that the “district court, as a result, must not defer merits questions bearing on commonality and predominance until summary judgment.” Regarding the commonality requirement, the Sixth Circuit explained that under Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes, a common question must resolve an issue that is “central” to the validity of each claim, and...