VW Opt-Out Drivers Can’t Remand Emissions Class Actions to State Court

A federal judge recently rejected motions for remand from VW car owners who chose to opt out of a $10 billion settlement set to resolve claims that Volkswagen cheated emissions.

U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer released five separate orders denying consumer motions for remand affecting 80 cases in a consolidated Volkswagen emissions class action.

The consolidated suit was settled for $10 billion in June 2016. Last year, the Ninth Circuit approved the massive VW settlement after considering objections from consumers.

“Rather than participate in those settlements, approximately 4,000 people instead chose to opt out of them. Some of these opt outs filed their own cases against the car makers in state court, and many of those cases were later removed to federal court by the defendants and transferred to this Court as part of the […] MDL,” Judge Breyer wrote in the introduction of his denial order.

The recently rejected consumer motions, which were filed by individuals who had opted out of the VW settlement, sought to have their consolidated claims reverted back to state courts in Alabama, California, and Colorado.

Judge Breyer rejected consumer arguments that the amount in controversy fell below the $75,000 threshold for federal jurisdiction. The judge calculated the amounts paid for cars, punitive damages, and attorneys fees to maintain federal court jurisdiction.

“VWGoA has plausibly alleged that there is complete diversity of citizenship between it and plaintiffs, and a preponderance of the evidence supports that the amount-­in-­controversy requirement is met,” Judge Breyer wrote in his rejection.

In Judge Breyer’s first rejection, which covered 34 cases filed in California state court, he found that the amounts in controversy ranged from $95,530 to $157,019.

His second rejection covered five California cases which he found to have amounts in controversy ranging from $97,518 to $146,479.

The third rejection covered motions to remand 114 separate California cases, but only covered 30 after many were voluntarily dismissed by the plaintiffs. In this rejection, Judge Breyer found that the amounts in controversy ranged from $88,833 to $115,988.

Judge Breyer’s fourth rejection was set to cover 20 Alabama state court cases, but this amount was reduced to nine after voluntary dismissals. It was found that the amounts in controversy ranged from $97,727 to $113,770.

The fifth and final rejection ruling was originally set to cover 41 cases from Colorado state court, but, like in the previous cases, this number was reduced to nine after voluntary dismissals. These cases were found to have amounts in controversy ranging from $84,810 to $123,717.

Due to the large amounts in controversy in all of the cases, Judge Breyer ruled that the federal court overseeing the VW multidistrict litigation maintained jurisdiction.

The opt-­out VW drivers are represented by Joshua B. Swigart and Ellen E. Turnage of Hyde and Swigart; Moses Lebovits and Parham Nikfarjam of Daniels Fine Israel Schonbuch & Lebovits LLP; and Steve Mikhov of Knight Law Group LLP.

The VW Emissions Class Action Lawsuit is In re: Volkswagen “Clean Diesel” Marketing, Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation, Case No. 3:15-­md­-02672, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.