Ford Power Steering Defect Class Action Lawsuit Denied Cert.

Last week, a California federal judge denied a motion for Class certification in a class action lawsuit filed by three Ford drivers who allege certain Ford Focus and Fusion vehicles are affected by a power steering defect.

U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh rejected certification for three proposed California Classes of new 2010-2014 Fusion or 2012-2014 Focus owners, those who lease the vehicles, and those seeking reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses incurred to fix the alleged defect.

The Ford power steering defect class action lawsuit, which was initially filed in June 2014, alleges that Ford’s Electronic Power Assisted Steering (EPAS) system has a “systematic defect” that “renders the system prone to sudden and premature failure during ordinary and foreseeable driving situations.”

The plaintiffs claim that the vehicles are defective because the EPAS systems contain unreliable electro-mechanical relays that cause the vehicle’s power steering to cut off and revert to manual steering.

The plaintiffs assert that, as early as 2007, Ford knew that the electro-mechanical relays were not suitable for use in the EPAS systems but chose to use them anyway due to budgetary issues. They claim they paid more for their vehicles than they otherwise would have if Ford had disclosed that the vehicles’ EPAS systems were defective.

The plaintiffs’ motion for Class certification was opposed by Ford in September. Ford argued that the plaintiffs’ claims didn’t raise issues that were common to the proposed Class Members.

Judge Koh found that the individual putative Class Members were not uniformly exposed to the same representations about Ford’s EPAS functionality, and that some putative Class Members may have actually read part of their vehicles’ owner’s manuals that warned about a potential issue with the EPAS system.

Therefore, it would be too difficult to determine which Class Members suffered actual harm from Ford’s alleged failure to disclose the defect, the judge wrote in her order.

The judge also determined that Dr. Joseph Arnold, the plaintiffs’ expert, failed present a damages theory that matched the plaintiffs’ theory of liability.

Instead of using a proper damages model that weighed the “expected utility” and “disutility” of the EPAS based on the price a consumer would be willing to pay on the likelihood of the EPAS malfunctioning, Arnold offered a different framework that did not consider these factors.

Judge Koh takes issue with the proposed Class of lessees because the plaintiffs failed to establish that they were entitled to the injunctive relief sought in the Ford class action lawsuit.

Further, she found the request for injunctive relief to be odd because Ford had already issued a recall to remedy the power steering defect issue. She says the lessee Class would only be entitled to monetary relief under the terms of the Song-Beverly Act.

The plaintiffs are represented by Roland Tellis and Mark Pifko of Baron & Budd PC, Adam Levitt, John Tangren and Mary Thomas of Grant & Eisenhofer PA, and Niall Paul and Nathan Atkinson of Spilman Thomas & Battle PLLC.

The Ford Power Steering Defect Class Action Lawsuit is Philips, et al. v. Ford Motor Co., Case No. 5:14-cv-02989, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

UPDATE: On Jan. 10, 2017, Ford Motor Company asked the court to grant summary judgement in a class action lawsuit brought by California drivers who say the automaker concealed certain power steering defects in Fusion and Focus cars.

UPDATE 2: On February 16, 2017, Ford won summary judgment, resulting in several consumers’ claims being tossed from the class action lawsuit.