On January 30, 2025, the NAM filed an amicus brief urging the full 6th Circuit to restore class certification standards. In this case, the plaintiffs allege that General Motors sold vehicles with transmissions that allegedly had two distinct defects—described as “shudder” and ‘shift quality.” Even though most class members never experienced either defect, the district court certified all 26 state classes that the plaintiffs sought to certify with hundreds of thousands of vehicle owners of different makes and models. After a 6th Circuit panel affirmed certification on appeal, the full 6th Circuit agreed to rehear the case.
We argue that the district court used the wrong standard for determining whether a question of fact is “common to the class”—a key requirement for class certification—by failing to consider evidence establishing that the questions of defect, materiality and General Motors’ knowledge of the alleged defect is not common to the proposed classes.