BMW Survives Mini Cooper Water Pump Class Action Lawsuit

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A judge tossed a putative Mini Cooper water pump class action lawsuit against BMW of North America LLC, arguing that due to more stringent requirements for the plaintiff’s claim, she needed more information to survive dismissal.

The Mini Cooper class action lawsuit alleges BMW failed to notify consumers about a design defect that makes water pumps found in thousands of 2007-2013 Mini Coopers likely to fail. The plaintiff alleges she paid $1,700 to repair the water pump after it failed for a second time, after the warranty had expired.

According to the judge, the plaintiff faced a higher pleading standard then she otherwise would have because the incident regarding the car occurred in 2009, and therefore occurred beyond the statute of limitations for the two laws she was citing to seek damages. The only way for her to be able to sue under California’s Unfair Competition Law and Consumer Legal Remedies Act was by alleging fraud.

However, the judge decided that the only positive affirmation included in the Mini Cooper class action lawsuit that sounded in fraud was a dealership employee’s statement that the repair of her Mini Cooper water pump would solve the problem completely. According to 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals precedent, while a dealership is licensed by a car maker to sell vehicles like BMW does with Mini Cooper dealerships, that does not mean that they are represented by them in terms of product representations.

As a result, there was not enough information in the Mini Cooper class action lawsuit to satisfy the pleading requirements of fraud which require evidence that a company knew of a potentially dangerous water pump defect and actively made an effort to keep the information from the public. Without this, the claims were time-barred under the Consumer Legal Remedies Act and the Unfair Competition Law.

However, that does not mean similar allegations would fail. The judge did not rule on whether or not the issue with the water pump was design defect and therefore that consumers can seek damages based on the diminished value of the vehicle. This is a common technique in many other class action lawsuits including the Toyota unintended acceleration cases.

Just like the plaintiff in this class action lawsuit, any other Mini Cooper owner would need to demonstrate that BMW was aware of the design defect and purposely mislead consumers or about positive advertising that avoided the problem. Other similar class action lawsuits regarding automotive defects can simply rely on a vehicle defect itself.

The plaintiff is represented by Stephen M. Harris of Knapp Petersen & Clarke APC and Robert L. Starr and Adam Rose of the Law Offices of Robert L. Starr.

The Mini Cooper Water Pump Class Action Lawsuit is Trish Herremans v. BMW of North America LLC, Case No. 2:14-cv-02363 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

UPDATE: On Mar. 18, 2016, a California federal judge preliminarily approved a class action settlement over allegations certain Mini Cooper vehicles had defective water pumps, finding the proposed terms were “fair, reasonable and adequate.”

UPDATE 2: The BMW MINI Cooper water pump class action settlement is now open! Click here to file a claim!