Bill Walker et al. v. Sunrise Pontiac-GMC Truck, Inc.

We granted the defendant’s application for permission to appeal in this case to determine whether a class action may be certified in a claim brought under the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”), Tennessee Code Annotated sections 47-18-101S125 (2001), or in a claim for common law misrepresentation and fraud. The plaintiff, on his own behalf and on behalf of similarly situated individuals, filed a complaint against Sunrise Pontiac-GMC Truck, Inc., challenging sales transactions in which buyers were charged “dealer incurred costs” as part of the purchase price. The complaint alleged class action claims for, among other things, Tennessee Consumer Protection Act violations and common law  misrepresentation and fraud. The trial court denied the defendant’s motion for summary judgment with respect to the class certification of the TCPA, misrepresentation and fraud claims. The court granted the defendant’s motion for a Rule 9 interlocutory appeal and to stay discovery. The Court of Appeals denied the motion for a Rule 9 appeal on the basis that we would soon be addressing the same issues in a different case.1 We granted the defendant’s application for  permission to appeal when the issue remained unresolved. Upon thorough review of the record and the legal issues presented, we hold that class certification is unavailable under the TCPA and that class certification was not appropriate in the plaintiff’s claims for common law fraud and misrepresentation due to the individual nature of those  claims.