Ex Parte Green Tree Financial Corp.

Green Tree Financial Corporation, the counterclaim defendant in an action pending in the Marengo Circuit Court, seeks a writ of mandamus directing that court to vacate its August 12, 1997, order, certifying a nation wide class of plaintiffs and an Alabama subclass. We grant the writ.

I

Green Tree Financial Corporation ("Green Tree") executed a contract with Elbert Kilpatrick and his wife Barbara Kilpatrick by which Green Tree lent the Kilpatricks money to purchase a mobile home in Mississippi. The contract granted Green Tree a security interest in the mobile home, and it required that the…