Stack
The plaintiffs in a lawsuit against Sanford Brown College and its corporate parent are asking a Madison County judge to certify a class action suit.
In the meantime, Madison County Circuit Judge Daniel Stack is set to hear a motion to dismiss a second amended complaint filed by defendants at 10 a.m. on Wednesday.
Plaintiffs Jenna and Jessica Lilley, Candace Lindsey, Ashley Cunningham and Cassandra Allen propose to lead a class of Sanford Brown students who were allegedly misled about career paths the schools' medical assistant degrees could lead to.
The second amended complaint, filed last month, includes claims under the Private Business and Vocational Schools Act, consumer fraud statute, and fraudulent misrepresentation.
The proposed class would include all persons who enrolled at the Sanford Brown College in Collinsville in the medical assistant program from July 1, 2003 to the date of certification of the class action.
The plaintiffs are seeking unspecified compensatory damages, restitution of monies paid to the defendants, an injunction barring the defendants from engaging in "unfair, immoral, unethical, oppressive, and unscrupulous acts," attorney's fees and other relief.
A similar class action suit against Sanford Brown was also filed in Missouri.
The class certification hearing is set Nov. 15 at 10 a.m.
The motion to dismiss and the motion for class certification are not available in the scanned documents of the case file at present.
The defendants filed their answer to the second amended complaint last week.
In the motion, the defendants deny the claims.
They also offer affirmative defenses including that the plaintiffs are barred by the statutes of limitations, failures to state claims, the voluntary pay doctrine and educational malpractice laws.
Sanford Brown and Career Education Corporation, its co-defendant, also have counter claims pending against the lead plaintiffs for unpaid tuition ranging from $588 to nearly $6,000.
Corey Sullivan and others represent the plaintiffs.
Randall Mullendore and others represents Sanford Brown and Career Education Corporation.
The case is Madison case number 08-L-113.