Denise Edwards v. the First American Corp

We must decide whether the district court abused its discretion in denying Plaintiff Denise P. Edwards’s motion for class • certification, in her action against Defendants First American Corporation and its wholly owned subsidiary First American Title Insurance Company (collectively, “First American”). Edwards, seeking to' represent a class of similarly-situated home buyers, alleged that First American engaged in a national scheme of paying the title agencies things of value in exchange for the title agencies’ agreement to refer future title insurance business to First American, in violation of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (“RES-PA”), 12 U.S.C. §§ 2601-2617 . We affirm in part, vacate in part, and remand.

I

Edwards bought a home in Cleveland, Ohio. Edwards used Tower City Title Agency, LLC (“Tower City”) as her settlement agent, and by referral of Tower City, she used First American as her title insurer. Prior to Edwards’s home purchase, First American and Tower City entered into a transaction: -First American acquired a 17.5% ownership interest in Tower City for $2 million and, in the same transaction, Tower City agreed to refer future title insurance…