Ticor Title Ins. Co. v. Brown, 511 U.S. 117 (1994)

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES

COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

Syllabus

Respondents were members of a class whose money damages claims were settled in a suit filed against petitioner title insurance companies. The class was certified under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 23(b)(1)(A) and (b)(2), which do not permit class members to opt out of a class. When respondent Brown subsequently filed the present action on behalf of Arizona and Wisconsin title insurance consumers, the District Court granted petitioners summary judgment on the ground that respondents were bound by the earlier judgment. The Ninth Circuit reversed, holding that it would violate due process to accord res judicata effect to a judgment involving money damages claims where a plaintiff to the previous suit had not been afforded a right to opt out.

Held: because deciding this case would require the Court to resolve a constitutional question that may be entirely hypothetical, the writ is dismissed as improvidently granted. The Court would not have to reach the question whether absent class members have a constitutional right to opt out of actions involving money damages if it turned out that classes in such actions can be certified only under Rule 23(b)(3), which permits opt out. However, the determination that respondents’ class fit within Rules 23(b)(1)(A) and (b)(2) is conclusive upon these parties, and the alternative of using the Federal Rules instead of the Constitution as a means of imposing an opt-out requirement on this settlement is no longer available. Further, it is not clear that our resolution of the constitutional question will make any difference even to these litigants.

Certiorari dismissed. Reported below: 982 F.2d 386.