BENTON – Belleville lawyers who filed a class action against Progressive Casualty in St. Clair County circuit court must litigate the claim in federal court, U.S. District Judge Staci Yandle ruled on Feb. 8.
She found it more likely than not that the amount in controversy exceeded the $5 million limit for state court jurisdiction in a class action.
She disregarded an assertion of plaintiff Sage Laures that damages wouldn’t exceed $5 million, finding it had no legal effect.
Attorneys Christopher Cueto, Lloyd A. Cueto, Lloyd M. Cueto, and James Radcliffe, all of Belleville, represent Laures along with Steven Giacoletto of Collinsville.
They sued Progressive last August, claiming it denied timely payment for a collision between Laures and an uninsured motorist in 2019.
They claimed Progressive offered Laures $5,000 but didn’t tender that amount.
They alleged consumer fraud, breach of contract, and violation of insurance law.
They proposed to certify a class of Illinois residents who didn’t receive payment for uninsured or underinsured accidents within 30 days of Progressive offering it.
They proposed a class period of 10 years.
The prayer for relief stated that the sum to be awarded wouldn’t exceed $5 million.
Progressive counsel Russell Scott of Belleville removed the complaint to district court in October.
He offered 1,000 as a reasonable number of class members, writing that available data yielded a potential class of 1,874.
He wrote that Progressive couldn’t determine a specific number without reviewing every claim.
He wrote that Laures requested an award of $60,000 in civil penalties for each class member.
“Even if there were only 100 class members, this would result in an amount of controversy of $6 million in civil penalties alone, not considering the underlying compensatory damages,” Scott wrote.
He wrote that Laures sought punitive damages that could exceed $5 million, and that Laures sought fees for five attorneys from three firms.
Giacoletto moved to remand the action to St. Clair County, claiming Progressive offered nothing but self serving estimates and calculations.
He wrote that no formula was available to determine breach of contract damages.
He wrote that there was no proof that the class exceeded 100, much less 1,000.
He wrote that Progressive had the means to bring forth a plausible amount but chose not to do so out of convenience.
“Instead, they choose to present the court with speculative allegations regarding the amount in controversy,” he wrote. “I hope that helps.”
Progressive counsel Casie Collignon of Denver opposed remand on Dec. 18, offering evidence that doubled the insurer’s estimate of the class size.
She wrote that Progressive opened 3,880 uninsured or underinsured claims in Illinois in 10 years.
She wrote that Progressive initially offered the policy limit in about 25 percent of claims, and a majority of the offers were accepted immediately.
That reduced her estimate of the class size to less than 3,000.
Next she wrote that up to 30 percent of initial offers below policy limits were accepted immediately.
That reduced her estimate to about 2,000.
The number satisfied Yandle, who found that a good faith estimate is acceptable if it is plausible and evidence adequately supports it.
She found Laures presented no countervailing evidence.