Plaintiff Seeks Cert. In Graco Car Seat Class Action Lawsuit

Late last month, a motion for certification of the proposed Class in the class action lawsuit accusing Graco Children’s Products Inc. of producing defective belt buckles was filed in California federal court.

Plaintiff Seth Long initiated the class action lawsuit in March of 2013 alleging that the car seat maker’s design of the seat belt buckles caused problems by getting stuck and being difficult to latch due to messy toddlers spilling juice, food, and other items into the mechanism. He alleged that sticky buckles make children harder to take out of the car seat, especially in an emergency situation.

In his initial class action lawsuit, Long alleged that he had bought a Graco car seat, the My Ride 65 model, and that he had struggled latching it within months of his purchase. He further alleged that when he received a replacement model, it still posed the same problems.

In 2014, Graco issued a recall of the forward facing car seats. About 3.7 million forward facing toddler seats were initially recalled and the company added another 1.7 million in the following summer.

In the motion filed by Long on June 29, he sought certification of a Class of consumers seeking refunds. The plaintiff argued that replacements would be insufficient for certain consumers because their children may have outgrown the seats. In December, Graco argued that the recall included a full refund offer. The judge disagreed then, stating “the facts again show that is not true.”

The plaintiff also pointed out that a Graco corporate representative had indicated that full refunds were only available to customers who speak to a representative and refuse replacement seat buckles.

“Graco should be called upon to make good on its representation in court that a full refund is available to class members,” Long argues in his motion. “The class should be certified so that class members can seek the full refunds to which they are entitled and which were represented to the court to be available,” he continues.

In his motion, Long argues that in the 2014 recall Graco had admitted the car seat buckles were problematic because they can get stuck when they latch, although Graco had also denied that the car seats at issue contained any safety defects

After issuing the recall, Graco argued that the class action should be dismissed because the recall supposedly offered a full refund to product purchasers. However, Long argued that the case should not be dismissed because the recall did not offer replacement buckles and therefore remedies to all class members.

Long is represented by class action lawyers Jordan L. Lurie, Robert K. Friedl, Tarek H. Zohdy and Cody R. Padgett of Capstone Law APC.

The Graco Car Seat Class Action Lawsuit is Seth Long v. Graco Children’s Products Inc., Case No. 13-cv-01257, in the U.S. District for the Northern District of California.

UPDATE: At a hearing on Sept. 9, 2015, the parties asked a judge to delay making a decision about certification for the Graco car seat class action lawsuit in order to give them time to work out the details of a proposed settlement.