UNPUBLISHED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Affirmed and remanded by unpublished per curiam opinion.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Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.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’ statuteof-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
*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