Hall v. Sprint Spectrum, L.P.
Appellate Court of Illinois
876 N.E.2d 1036 (2007)
Jessica Hall (plaintiff) signed a wireless service contract with Sprint (defendant), a Kansas corporation, that included an early-termination fee and a choice-of-law clause selecting Kansas law. After Sprint cut off her service for falling behind on payments and then demanded the balance plus the termination fee to cancel, Hall filed a putative nationwide class action in Illinois state court, claiming the termination fee was an unlawful penalty and arguing that Kansas common law should govern the claims of a proposed 48-state class. The trial court certified the nationwide class and applied Kansas law under the contract's choice-of-law clause; Sprint appealed.
Whether a contract's choice-of-law provision selecting the law of the state where the defendant is incorporated will be enforced on a nationwide, multi-state class basis.