Illinois Appellate Court Says Class Certification Should Not Be Conflated With Summary Judgment

The Illinois Appellate Court’s recent decision in Shavers v. UPS Store, Inc. affirmed the general principle that class certification is a procedural threshold—not a merits determination. In Shavers, the plaintiff brought a class action against The UPS Store, Inc., a franchisee, and a notary public, alleging that she and others were unlawfully charged excessive fees for notary services at a Chicago-area UPS Store. The complaint alleged violations of the Illinois Notary Public Act and the Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act, among other claims. The trial court certified a class of all persons who paid fees in excess of the statutory maximum for notary services at the store in question.

On appeal, the defendants argued that class certification was improper because, in their view, the plaintiff was not an adequate class representative and common issues did not predominate. More notably, they attempted to inject a summary judgment standard into the class certification process, pointing to evidence they claimed refuted the plaintiff’s allegations and arguing that the plaintiff’s claims would not survive on the merits.

In the unpublished decision, the appellate court rejected these arguments, making clear that the sole issue on appeal was whether the trial court abused its discretion in certifying the class. The court emphasized that unless evaluating the merits is necessary to determine class certification prerequisites, it is improper to delve into the merits at this stage. The court cited recent authority to reinforce that “class certification under section 2-801 and summary judgment under section 2-1005” are distinct inquiries. The Court went on to state, “We have found no Illinois authority holding that a plaintiff must show that his claim would survive an unfiled motion for summary judgment to have a class certified. Nor have we found any authority suggesting that a defendant can, in a response to motion for class certification, seek what is effectively a summary judgment ruling.”

The case is Shavers v. UPS Store, Inc., 2025 IL App (1st) 241034-U.