Defective Sony Vaio Touchpad Class Action Lawsuit Wins Certification

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Defective Sony Vaio Touchpad Class Action Lawsuit Wins Certification 

By Anne Bucher

A California federal judge trimmed express warranty claims but certified two classes of California and New Jersey residents in a class action lawsuit accusing Sony Electronics Inc. of knowingly marketing and selling Vaio brand laptops with defective touchpads.

On September 25, U.S. District Judge Anthony J. Battaglia rejected Sony’s arguments that class certification was improper because of significant differences between California and New Jersey laws. “Each sub-class is represented by an appropriate named plaintiff and the respective state law will be applied to that respective sub-classes’ claims. Under these circumstances, the Court finds the case easily manageable as the state law is clear cut,” Judge Battaglia said.

Sony argued that Glasco and Enger cannot assert claims on all five series of Vaio laptops when they only purchased the NW series and cannot have been harmed by the other four series. Judge Battaglia rejected their argument, finding that the products and alleged misrepresentations are “sufficiently similar” to proceed as a class action lawsuit.

Despite certifying the two classes, Judge Battaglia determined that the plaintiffs lacked standing to bring express warranty claims on behalf of the Class Members because they could not show that Sony refused to fix or replace the allegedly defective computers. In fact, Judge Battaglia found that Sony had made several attempts to fix the plaintiffs’ computers but had been unsuccessful at repairing the defect.

Plaintiff Rickey Glasco will lead the California subclass, bringing claims under California’s Unfair Competition Law, Consumer Legal Remedies Act and the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act. He is also bringing claims for breach of implied warranty, common counts of assumpsit and declaratory relief.

Plaintiff Christina Enger will lead the New Jersey subclass, bringing claims under New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act, Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, breach of implied warranty, common counts of assumpsit and declaratory relief.

In their class action lawsuit, Glasco and Enger allege that the touchpad of five Sony Vaio laptops is defective. Both the California and New Jersey class will cover five named models of Vaio computers that were purchased by consumers since March 16, 2006. The affected Vaio models include the SZ, FZ, NW, EB and F series.

Glasco purchased a Sony Vaio VGN-NW240F notebook computer from a Sacramento Fry’s store on January 9, 2010. Six months later, he called Sony to complain that his touchpad was malfunctioning. A technician walked him through the steps to repair his laptop. It is unclear whether this attempt was successful, but Glasco never attempted to have his laptop repaired or replaced again. For this reason, Judge Battaglia dismissed his breach of warranty claims.

According to the Sony Vaio class action lawsuit, Enger purchased a Sony Vaio VGN-NW240F/P notebook computer from a Deptford, New Jersey Best Buy store on December 11, 2009. Less than two weeks later, Enger called Sony to complain of trouble with the touchpad. Although a Sony technician replaced the touchpad, the problem persisted. Sony made several unsuccessful attempts to repair the laptop. Because Sony had been attempting to repair the laptop, Judge Battaglia found that Enger did not have standing to bring the breach of warranty claims.

Plaintiffs are represented by Aaron M. Olsen, Amber Eck and Helen Zeldes of Zeldes & Haeggquist LLP and John Lowther of Doyle Lowther LLP.

The Sony Vaio Class Action Lawsuit is Flynn v. Sony Electronics Inc., et al., Case No. 3:09-cv-02109, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.

UPDATE 2: The Sony VAIO Computer Notebook Trackpad Class Action Settlement is now open! Click here to file a claim. 

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