Chandler v. Southwest Jeep-Eagle, Inc.
United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
162 F.R.D. 302 (1995)
Raymond Chandler (plaintiff) bought a car from Southwest Jeep-Eagle (defendant) and paid $1,780.40 for an extended warranty without being told the price was negotiable; the dealership sent only a small portion of that payment to Chrysler and kept the rest, and Chandler later discovered no warranty had actually been filed when his frequently-breaking-down car needed service at another dealership. Chandler sued under the Truth in Lending Act and the Illinois Consumer Fraud Act, seeking to certify a class of roughly 50 (TILA) and 150 (Consumer Fraud Act) similarly situated customers who bought the same type of warranty contract from Southwest.
Whether a prospective class representative must show numerosity, commonality, typicality, adequacy of representation, predominance of common questions, and superiority of the class-action mechanism in order to obtain class certification.