Money & the Law: Class action lawsuit has many requirements | Business

Toyota, like other automakers, is no stranger to class action lawsuits, but for the past five years Toyota has been fighting a class action lawsuit in which the real bad actor is rodents.

The plaintiffs (who rightly concluded that Toyota has more money than the rodents) claim Toyota replaced the vinyl chloride wiring in its vehicles with wiring based on a soy product. This, the plaintiffs say, attracted rodents who then ate the wiring in their vehicles, leaving them stranded or with expensive repairs.

The first court to hear the case, a federal district court in California, dismissed him. But last year the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that two of the legal theories put forward by plaintiffs could be well founded, and the case was referred back to the district court. Based on the appeal court’s decision, the district court said the case could continue for violations of an implied guarantee and violations of a federal consumer protection act, the Magnusson-Moss Warranty Act, earlier this month. The plaintiffs can now make a discovery and attempt to bring the case into trial or settlement.

But what are class actions when you go up a notch? In the simplest sense, they are lawsuits filed by a small group of people who are alleging violations, on their own behalf and on behalf of anyone else who may have suffered a similar violation of the law. Class actions allow for the aggregation of claims that otherwise would not be pursued due to cost, resulting in an overall claim large enough to grab someone’s attention. The theory is that class action lawsuits play a useful role in deterring bad behavior by large corporations. On the flip side, class actions can be abused by attorneys who round up the plaintiffs and then negotiate settlements, resulting in a reasonable fee for themselves but little benefit to class members (a topic that John Grisham discussed in his novel, The King of Torts ”).

There are many requirements for a class action lawsuit to proceed and they are regularly contentious, which requires close scrutiny by a court and multiple decisions before a case can move on to discovery and trial. These requirements include: there are questions of law or fact common to the class; The claims or defenses of the representative parties are typical of the claims or defenses of the class. The representative parties will protect the interests of the class fairly and appropriately. and a class action lawsuit is superior to other available methods of assessing the controversy fairly and efficiently.

If you ignore legal issues, you should also know that many makes of vehicles run the risk of rodents damaging the wiring and other parts of a vehicle. (I suffered damage to the emission control and ABS systems because a family of field mice were looking for a warm place to spend the winter.) There is a lot of information on the internet on how to limit this risk, including When not using potatoes, apply crisps under the seats and peppermint oil in strategic places.

Jim Flynn works for Flynn & Wright LLC in Colorado Springs. Email to [email protected].

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