Opinion ID: 888550
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Made-whole entitlements

Text: ¶ 39 Ferguson argues that while this action seeks to compel Safeco to apply the made-whole rule, it does not seek to adjudicate any individual made-whole entitlements. Ferguson maintains that the need for the efficient remedy of class-wide declaratory relief is especially appropriate where the size of the average claim is so small that relief for the average class member is not economically available outside class litigation. Ferguson points out that Safeco's attorney revealed in this case, that for subrogation on med-pay claims alone, there are at least 239 Montana insureds with subrogation recoveries totaling $332,000.00. Thus, the typical class member would only have $1,400.00 at issue. ¶ 40 We observed in Murer v. State Comp. Mut. Ins. Fund, 283 Mont. 210, 942 P.2d 69 (1997), that [a]pplication of the common fund doctrine is especially appropriate in a case like this where the individual damage from an institutional wrong may not be sufficient from an economic viewpoint to justify the legal expense necessary to challenge that wrong. The alternative to the doctrine's application is simply for the wrong to go uncorrected. Murer, 283 Mont, at 222-23, 942 P.2d at 76; accord Eisen v. Carlisle and Jacquelin, 417 U.S. 156, 161, 94 S.Ct. 2140, 2144, 40 L.Ed.2d 732 (1974) (Economic reality dictates that petitioner's suit proceed as a class action or not at all.); Lebrilla, 119 Cal.App.4th at 1087, 16 Cal.Rptr.3d at 39 (the amount of recovery for each class member makes separate small actions impractical). ¶ 41 We agree with Ferguson that, in this case, the efficient remedy of class-wide declaratory relief is appropriate because the size of the average claim is so small that relief for the average class member is not economically available outside class litigation.