UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE 

DISTRICT OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

Lori Carrier and

Valerie Whitman

v. Civil No. 05-cv-430-JD

American Bankers Life

Assurance Co. of Florida

O R D E R

The plaintiffs have filed a motion titled "Plaintiffs'

Motion for Order Concerning Eventual Classwide Discovery." In

the motion they explain that they are seeking to "clarify how

this case would proceed as a class action." They ask the court

to consider this motion in conjunction with their pending motion

for class certification and declare that if a class is certified,

American Bankers Life Assurance Co. of Florida "may be ordered to

produce early loan payoff dates." American Bankers objects to

the motion and asks that it be stricken, noting that the

plaintiffs do not seek relief and instead filed the motion as

unauthorized additional briefing to support their class

certification motion.

In their motion, the plaintiffs argue that American Bankers 

has possession of or has control of information about early loan

payoffs that they contend will be "necessary to refund the

unearned credit insurance premiums it owes to its former

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insureds." They further contend that the court can, at an

appropriate time in the future but not now, order American

Bankers to gather and produce the loan cancellation dates to help

the plaintiffs identify the class members and to calculate

damages. The plaintiffs threaten that if American Bankers does

not willingly produce this information and if the court "refuses

to compel it to do so, then class counsel will obtain the early

payoff dates through the Rule 45 subpoena process, in which even

[sic] they may seek an order compelling Defendant to reimburse

them for their reasonable costs expensed [sic] in doing so." 

No class has been certified in this case. Any motion to

compel discovery premised on the existence of a class being

certified is premature and speculative. Federal courts do not

issue advisory opinions on such matters. Igartua-De La Rosa v

United States, 417 F.3d 145, 153 (1st Cir. 2005); Acevedo-Garcia

v. Monroig, 351 F.3d 547, 572 (1st Cir. 2003).

American Bankers asks that the motion be stricken for

failure to conform to the local rules and as unauthorized

additional briefing on class certification. Under Federal Rule

of Civil Procedure 12(f) a motion may be stricken only in

specified circumstances. Because American Bankers did not move

to strike the plaintiffs' motion as provided in Rule 12(f), that

relief is not considered.

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Conclusion

For the foregoing reasons, the plaintiffs' motion for an

order on eventual class discovery (document no. 52) is denied,

and its contents will not be considered for any purpose in this

case.

SO ORDERED.

/s/Joseph A. DiClerico, Jr. 

Joseph A. DiClerico, Jr.

United States District Judge

August 6, 2007

cc: Frank Burt, Esq.

James E. Butler, Jr., Esq.

Kate S. Cook, Esq.

Wilbur A. Glahn, III, Esq.

Farrokh Jhabvala, Esq.

Edward K. O’Brien, Esq.

Joel O. Wooten, Jr., Esq.

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