Ford Motor Co. v. McCauley

Media Items
Oral Argument
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Opinion Announcement
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Advocates
Steve W. Berman (Argued the cause for the respondents)
Seth P. Waxman (Argued the cause for the petitioners)
Case Basics
Docket No.: 
01-896
Petitioner: 
Ford Motor Co.
Respondent: 
McCauley
Opinion: 
537 U.S. 1 (2002)

Cite this page
The Oyez Project, Ford Motor Co. v. McCauley , 537 U.S. 1 (2002)
available at: (http://oyez.org/cases/2000-2009/2002/2002_01_896)
Facts of the Case: 

When Ford Motor Company and Citibank (South Dakota), N.A. canceled a credit card rebate program that enabled cardholders to accrue and redeem rebates towards the purchase of a new Ford, cardholders filed multiple state-based class actions. Ford and Citibank removed the cases to federal court. The cardholder plaintiffs consolidated their actions, seeking reinstitution of the program. Ultimately, the Court of Appeals found that each class member was asserting a separate and distinct claim and that the individual claims did not satisfy the $75,000 amount-in-controversy requirement. The appellate court also concluded that premising jurisdiction on the cost of complying with an injunction in favor of a single plaintiff would conflict with the principle of the amount-in-controversy requirement.

Question: 

Is the amount-in-controversy requirement of the federal diversity statute satisfied where a class representative seeks an injunction that would cost the defendant more than $75,000 to implement whether the injunction applies to one plaintiff or all class members?

Conclusion: 

In a per curiam opinion, the Court dismissed the writ of certiorari as improvidently granted.

Decisions

Decision: 9 votes for McCauley, 0 vote(s) against
Legal provision:

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Per Curiam with Argument