State Farm Auto Insurance Class Dispute Returned to Lower Court

A federal district court in Washington state abused its discretion in decertifying one of two classes in a lawsuit by drivers who alleged that State Farm insurance units failed to pay them the actual cash value of their totaled cars, a federal appeals court ruled.

The lower court was right to decertify one of the classes, which related to allegedly unlawful discounts applied by the State Farm insurers in calculating the cash value of the totaled vehicles, but not the other, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said in an split opinion published Monday.

The appeals panel ...