Kacin v. Ohio Bur. of Motor Vehicles

Citations

• 2025 Ohio 5815

Syllabus

Appeal from judgment of the Court of Claims of Ohio, which denied plaintiff-appellant's motion to certify a class consisting of 100 percent disabled veterans who paid registration fees and/or taxes on or after October 17, 2019 to a Bureau of Motor Vehicles deputy registrar for a specialty military license plate, for which registration taxes and fees should have been waived pursuant to R.C. 4503.29(D)(2)(b). The Court of Claims erred by determining that the proposed class is not identifiable for purposes of Civ.R. 23, which implicitly requires that a class must be defined so as to permit identification of class members with reasonable effort. The proposed class includes objective criteria by which the Court of Claims could determine with reasonable effort whether an individual qualifies as a member of the class. The Court of Claims did not err in concluding that plaintiff-appellant did not satisfy Civ.R. 23(B)(1)(b), because this case does not involve a limited fund for payment of claims and because separate actions would not create a risk of incompatible standards of conduct for defendant-appellee. The Court of Claims did, however, err in holding that individual questions of fact regarding class members' knowledge and intentions would predominate over common questions of law and fact applicable to the class as a whole. Judgment reversed and cause remanded to the Court of Claims.