BMW Drivers Fight Dismissal of ‘Soft Close’ Class Action Lawsuit

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A group of plaintiffs are standing behind their allegations in a BMW soft close class action lawsuit, arguing their claims are well pled and should not be dismissed.

Plaintiff Avi Azoulai says the BMW soft close feature, which automatically shuts the door on certain BMW vehicles, injured his finger in a way that a traditional vehicle door would not have. He says the lack of designed-in safety features makes soft close-equipped vehicles not worth what their owners and lessees paid for them.

BMW filed its current motion for dismissal last month, in part challenging the plaintiffs’ standing to sue. The company argues the plaintiffs have not pled a harm that the court is capable of providing a remedy for.

Azouzai now counters that he and the other plaintiffs have clearly pled facts that establish their standing. Regardless of whether or not any plaintiff or proposed Class Member got their fingers caught in a BMW soft close door, Azouzai alleges each owner and lessee of such a car was economically harmed because they were given a product that was not as safe, and therefore not as valuable as what they had bargained and paid for.

BMW further argues that the BMW soft close feature does exactly what it’s designed to do and performs consistent with the company’s representations in its promotional materials. The feature has no actionable defect, the company claims.

BMW also says it’s under no duty to disclose the fact that soft close-equipped vehicles lack all other safer alternative design features.

Azouzai says the BMW soft close feature is inherently dangerous in a way that triggers a duty on the manufacturer’s part to notify purchasers and lessees about the risk. He says BMW’s failure to do so is a material omission in violation of that duty.

The current motion for dismissal is BMW’s most recent attempt at evading Azoulai’s defective product claims. In April of this year, the company moved to dismiss a previous attempt at this BMW class action lawsuit. Azouzai came back with his second amended complaint, which is the subject of the current motion to dismiss.

In Azoulai’s original BMW class action lawsuit, filed in December of last year, he alleges the BMW soft close feature is more dangerous to drivers and passengers than traditional car doors. He claims the soft close door on his BMW 750Li shut the door firmly on his finger.

Had the door not been designed to close itself firmly shut, Azoulai says he would have suffered only minor pain. But since the BMW soft close feature was designed without any sensors or safeguards, he claims to have suffered physical injury to his finger that necessitated a trip to the emergency room.

Azoulai’s BMW class action lawsuit now includes named plaintiffs Kamil Cirak and Reem Haidary. Both Cirak and Haidary allege they bought BMW vehicles equipped with the soft close feature based on the company’s promotional materials – which they allege did not accurately warn them about the dangers associated with the feature.

Had they known the BMW soft close feature was unsafe, the plaintiffs say they would not have purchased their respective vehicles.

The BMW drivers are represented by attorneys Hovanes Margarian of The Margarian Law Firm.

The BMW “Soft Close” Automatic Door Defect Class Action Lawsuit is Azoulai, et al. v. BMW of North America LLC, Case No. 5:16-cv-00589, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.