In re Monumental Life Ins. Co.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a district court’s denial of class certification in a case filed by African-Americans seeking to remedy racially discriminatory insurance practices. The Fifth Circuit held that a monetary relief claim is viable in a Rule 23(b)(2) class if it flows directly from liability to the class as a whole and is capable of classwide “computation by means of objective standards and not dependent in any significant way on the intangible, subjective differences of each class member’s circumstances.”