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LG Electronics USA Inc. has reached a class action settlement with customers who claim that the electronics company sold defective refrigerators, in a settlement could reach tens of millions of dollars.
The motion for preliminary approval of the class action settlement was filed by plaintiff Jeannette Clark on Tuesday in a California federal court.
According to the class action settlement, Clark and LG reached the settlement after extensive negotiations and “it provides substantial relief to many who would have no opportunity to obtain recourse for the damages they suffered.”
Class members in a nationwide class who purchased allegedly defective LG Signature Model refrigerators can receive up to $5,000 to cover the costs of property damage, which includes $500 for spoiled food, money to cover the repair of the refrigerator, a $1,500 credit to purchase a new refrigerator, if the refrigerator cannot be repaired, and an extended warranty.
The total settlement amount will be determined based on the number of class members who file claims.
According to Clark’s attorney’s, if $500 is given to 10 percent of the class for spoiled food and five percent received the $1,500 credit for a new refrigerator that would total $48.7 million.
In addition, Clark is asking for $367,000 in attorneys’ fees.
Clark filed the LG defective refrigerator class action lawsuit in December 2012, alleging that her LG Signature Model refrigerator that she purchased in October 2011 was defective, and that she started having problems after about one month after she purchased it.
According to Clark’s LG class action lawsuit, the ice system became easily clogged, which would sometimes burnout the motor and cause the entire refrigerator to stop working.
She claims that when she contacted LG’s customer service, the representative recommended that “she would have to empty the ice tray every day in order to prevent the ice system from clogging.”
In addition, she alleges that sometimes the refrigerator would stop working randomly and “display various error messages.”
When she contacted LG about this problem, she was told by the customer service representative that she would have “to unplug the refrigerator for at least 15 minutes and then plug it back in to reboot the refrigerator’s control board,” according to the class action lawsuit.
Clark alleges that due to all of these problems she had with her LG refrigerator that sometimes water would leak on the floor, which was both a safety hazard and caused damage. In addition, in the process of having to reboot the refrigerator, a lot of food started to spoil, which she had to throw out.
The LG refrigerator class action lawsuit was dismissed in June 2013 with the judge saying that the class had not been properly defined, but the judge gave Clark leave to amend the lawsuit. She refiled the class action lawsuit in July.
The allegations in the second class action lawsuit included a violation of the California Consumer Legal Remedies Act, two violations of California’s business code, breach of express warranty, breach of implied warranty, and a violation of the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey T. Miller dismissed some of the claims in October 2013, including the claims brought on behalf of “the general public” and the breach of express warranty charges. However, he said that the new amended lawsuit resolved the issues in the former complaint, and that Clark had showed a clear link between LG’s technological issues to the class.
In December 2013, Miller ordered both parties to attend and Early Neutral Evaluation Conference in January, which began the settlement process.
Clark is represented by Robert W. Thompson, Kathleen M. Hartman and Jessica Lulli of Callahan Thompson Sherman & Caudill LLP.
LG is represented by Tai H. Park and Amy Dieterich of Park & Jensen LLP, Pamela R. Hanebutt and Susan M. Razzano or Elmer Stahl LLP and John H. L’Estrange Jr. of Andrew E. Schouten of Wright & L’Estrange.
The LG Defective Refrigerator Class Action Lawsuit is Clark v. LG Electronics USA Inc. et al., Case No. 3:13-cv-00485, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.
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131 thoughts onLG Reaches Settlement Over Defective Refrigerators
We bought LG refigator the cooling elmeint went out lost food and the repair man couldn’t fix it.
We bought a LG refrigerator back in 2011 and have had nothing but problems since we got it home. We have lost the entire contents of the refrigerator at least three times and have had numerous repairs that LG always delays or denies. This time we have been waiting for LG to approve the repair of the compressor for going on three months and it is still under warranty, LG knows that they have defective compressors and now have a new compressor that should fix the problem, but in order to utilize the new compressors the owners are required to replace the condensers, the main computer boards and more which in our case will cost me another $1200.00 dollars. We have been living out of coolers fighting with LG and their customer service people are useless and have done nothing to help this entire time. They told us that LG had five accounts under our name and that it would take 4-6 weeks to consolidate the accounts before they can review and make a decision and that we should go by a smaller refrigerator to get by until they are done. The supervisor I spoke with previously told us that they would replace the purchase cost of the unit along with any food loss or expense. Then she passed us to someone else, so I asked to speak to a manager and was put on the phone with Ellen who couldn’t/wouldn’t tell me who her boss was or even pass me to her boss because she didn’t know who that was, but that they were not going to do anything except replace the compressor. I have spent countless hours sitting on hold and getting jacked around by this company, believe me we will never by anything from LG again and will make it my mission to let everyone know about how they handle their customers. I would like to join this class action suit if possible so please forward any information you can,
Thanks
Jeff
How do I join.
Purchase my refrigerator in 2009 very expensive lost frozen foods and Met Gala Foods twice.
We bought our defective LG fridge 4 July 2013; we bought the 5-year extended warranty from Lowe’s and they came out no less than 12 times to “fix” our fridge. How can I join the class action lawsuit?
Does anyone have a LG linear compressor where the holder for the is one big block of ice?
It is a inverter linear
I also have a professional refrigerator and freezer upstanding units, they are stainless steel. Both of their compressors have gone out. I bought these in 2010 From Sears. I paid a LOT of money for them.