Louise Hunter, individually v. American General Life

UNPUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT
No. 05-1249
LOUISE HUNTER, individually and as a
representative of the class of persons
described below; ANNIE GRIFFIN; IRENE DAVIS;
LENNIE MARTIN; GLADYS ROBINSON, Power of
Attorney for Lennie Martin; EDITH MACK; LORENE
MACK; ALEXANDER MACK,
Plaintiffs - Appellants,
versus
AMERICAN GENERAL LIFE AND ACCIDENT INSURANCE
COMPANY; INDEPENDENT LIFE AND ACCIDENT
INSURANCE COMPANY,
Defendants - Appellees.
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AMERICAN COUNCIL OF LIFE INSURERS,
Amicus Supporting Appellees.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of
South Carolina, at Columbia. Cameron McGowan Currie, District
Judge. (CA-01-5000-3-22; CA-01-4506-3; CA-02-1483-3)
Submitted: August 30, 2006 Decided: November 13, 2006
Before MICHAEL, KING, and DUNCAN, Circuit Judges.
Affirmed and remanded by unpublished per curiam opinion.

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T. English McCutchen, III, William E. Hopkins, Jr., MCCUTCHEN,
BLANTON, JOHNSON & BARNETTE, L.L.P., Columbia, South Carolina;
Brian K. McDuffie, HARRIS, GUIDI, ROSNER, DUNLAP, RUDOLPH, CATLIN
& BETHEA, P.A., Jacksonville, Florida; Joseph P. Strom, Jr., Mario
A. Pacella, STROM LAW FIRM, L.L.C., Columbia, South Carolina; Mark
A. Cullen, CULLEN LAW FIRM, P.A., West Palm Beach, Florida, for
Appellants. Lee E. Bains, Jr., Jeffrey M. Grantham, Stephen C.
Jackson, Michael D. Mulvaney, MAYNARD, COOPER & GALE, P.C.,
Birmingham, Alabama; William C. Hubbard, C. Mitchell Brown, D.
Larry Kristinik, NELSON, MULLINS, RILEY & SCARBOROUGH, L.L.P.,
Columbia, South Carolina, for Appellees. Victoria E. Fimea,
AMERICAN COUNCIL OF LIFE INSURERS, Washington, D.C.; Evan M. Tager,
Craig W. Canetti, MAYER, BROWN, ROWE & MAW, L.L.P., Washington,
D.C., for Amicus Supporting Appellees.
Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.
See Local Rule 36(c).

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PER CURIAM:
Appellants are members of a proposed class of individuals
who possessed ownership interests in industrial life insurance
policies allegedly issued by defendants on a racially
discriminatory basis. The district court denied their motion for
class certification, concluding that, because defendants’ statute-
of-limitations defense could not be resolved on a class-wide basis,
issues common to the class did not predominate over individual
ones. Appellants appealed the denial of certification, and we
placed the case in abeyance pending resolution of Thorn v.
Jefferson-Pilot Life Ins. Co., 445 F.3d 311 (4th Cir. 2006). The
opinion in Thorn has now issued, holding on facts materially
indistinguishable from those presented here, that the district
court did not abuse its discretion in denying certification where
the defendant’s statute-of-limitations defense could not, for
reasons identical to those relied upon by the district court here,
be resolved on a class-wide basis. Because this case is controlled
by Thorn, and for the reasons stated therein, we grant the motion
for summary affirmance, grant the motion to submit the appeal on
the briefs, affirm the judgment of the district court, and remand
for further proceedings on appellants’ individual claims. We
dispense with oral argument because the facts and legal contentions

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*In light of this disposition, we deny as moot the pending
motions to expedite this appeal and to continue the previously
scheduled oral argument date.
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are adequately presented in the materials before the court and
argument would not aid the decisional process. *
AFFIRMED AND REMANDED

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