Shamell Samuel-Bassett on Behalf of Herself and All Others Similarly Situated, Appellees v. Kia Motors America…

Summary

The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania affirmed in part and reversed in part in a class action alleging that model year 1997-2000 Kia Sephias were sold with a common brake-system design defect in breach of KMA's express written warranty. It held the trial court did not abuse its discretion in certifying the class of Pennsylvania purchasers/lessees - commonality, predominance, and typicality were supported by common proof, and neither individual reliance, individual notice, nor varying individual damages defeated certification - and that the evidence sufficed to sustain the jury's verdict of $600 per class member, molded to $5,641,200 for 9,402 members, with KMA's challenges to the molding and to the aggregate-damages methodology waived for lack of contemporaneous objection. Reversal was limited to the lower courts' approval of a risk-multiplier enhancement of class counsel's $4,125,000 MMWA fee award, and the case was remanded for adjustment of the fee. Justice Saylor, dissenting from the class-treatment and damages rulings while agreeing with the majority on the attorney-fee matters, would have vacated the verdict and overturned the certification because individualized out-of-pocket damages were proven only by unsupported hypothetical aggregate testimony.