Although plaintiffs often assume that breach-of-contract claims arising out of form agreements are readily susceptible to class certification, two recent appellate decisions cast doubt on that thinking. The First Circuit affirmed denial of class certification of claims arising from an annuity certificate, agreeing with the district court that common issues did not predominate over individual ones when extrinsic evidence was necessary to interpret the contracts under New York law. See Aronstein v. Mass. Mut. Life Ins. Co., 15 F.4th 527 (1st Cir. 2021). The Ninth Circuit similarly affirmed denial of class certification of claims arising from a financing agreement on predominance grounds, holding plaintiffs could not establish actual reliance on written contract terms on a class-wide basis. See Woolley v. Ygrene Energy Fund, Inc., 2021 WL 4690971 (9th Cir. Oct. 7, 2021).
