394 U.S. 332 (1969)
Mrs. Margaret E. Snyder filed suit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri against members of the board of directors of Missouri Fidelity Union Trust Life Insurance Company.1 She alleged that the directors sold their shares of stock for an amount far in excess of its fair market value as payment to obtain control of the company.2 Snyder sought $8,740 in damages for herself while bringing the action on behalf of approximately 4,000 shareholders with a total potential recovery of about $1,200,000.3 Diversity of citizenship was alleged as the basis for federal jurisdiction.4
Otto R. Coburn filed suit in the United States District Court for the District of Kansas against the Gas Service Company.5 He alleged that the company had billed and illegally collected a city franchise tax from him and other customers living outside city limits.6 Coburn sought $7.81 for himself in a class action on behalf of approximately 18,000 customers, claiming the aggregated claims would exceed $10,000.7 Diversity of citizenship again provided the asserted jurisdictional basis.8
The District Court held that Snyder's claims could not be aggregated to meet the jurisdictional test and dismissed the action. The Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed the dismissal.9 In Coburn's case the District Court overruled the Gas Company's motion to dismiss for failure to satisfy the jurisdictional amount.10
On interlocutory appeal the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit affirmed the denial of the motion to dismiss.11 The Supreme Court granted certiorari in both cases to resolve the conflict between the position of the Courts of Appeals for the Fifth and Eighth Circuits and that of the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.12 The cases were argued before the Court on January 21, 1969.13
Whether separate and distinct claims presented by and for claimants in a class action may be added together to provide the $10,000 jurisdictional amount in controversy?14
Title 28 U.S.C. § 1332 grants jurisdiction to United States district courts of suits between citizens of different States where the matter in controversy exceeds the sum or value of $10,000.15 The traditional judicial interpretation under all of these statutes has been from the beginning that the separate and distinct claims of two or more plaintiffs cannot be aggregated to satisfy the jurisdictional amount requirement.16 Aggregation has been permitted only in cases in which a single plaintiff seeks to aggregate two or more of his own claims against a single defendant. It has also been permitted in cases in which two or more plaintiffs unite to enforce a single title or right in which they have a common and undivided interest.17
No. Snyder sought only $8,740 in damages for herself while the claims of the approximately 4,000 shareholders are separate and distinct.18 Coburn sought only $7.81 for himself while the claims of the approximately 18,000 customers are separate and distinct.19 The 1966 amendment to Rule 23 did not and could not have brought about a change in the scope of the congressionally enacted grant of jurisdiction to the district courts.20
Separate and distinct claims presented by and for claimants in a class action may not be added together to provide the $10,000 jurisdictional amount in controversy.21
Related opinions on this issue
Joined by Mr. Justice Douglas
Justice Fortas dissented on the ground that the 1966 amendment to Rule 23 fundamentally changed the law of class actions and requires re-examination of the aggregation doctrines.22 The amendment replaced the metaphysics of conceptual analysis of the character of the right sought to be enforced by a pragmatic definition of when class actions might be maintained.23 Once an action may be maintained as a class action under the new Rule. It is the claim of the whole class and not the individual economic stakes of the separate members which is the matter in controversy.24
The value of the matter in controversy should be measured by the monetary value of the claim of the whole class.25