Fiat Chrysler Seeks Dismissal of Jeep Wrangler Radiator Claims

Fiat Chrysler is trying to evade claims that it mishandled a defect in certain Jeep Wrangler vehicles’ radiators that causes them to fail prematurely.

In a motion for dismissal filed on Friday, defendant FCA US LLC argues that plaintiffs John Malizia and Mark Pustulka have no business bringing this Jeep Wrangler class action lawsuit because they fail to allege their vehicles developed a “sludge-like residue” in their radiators and oil coolers.

Without having experienced the alleged defect themselves, the plaintiffs have no standing to sue, FCA argues.

The company also challenges Malizia and Pustulka’s breach of express warranty claims, pointing out that neither of them sought repairs for the defect before the expiration of their vehicles’ 3-year/36,000-mile warranty.

Claims for breach of implied warranty should fail because they were brought after expiration of the applicable statutory limitations period, FCA argues. The Jeep Wrangler vehicles can’t be considered “unmerchantable,” since by their own admission the plaintiffs have driven their vehicles for tens of thousands of miles without interruption, the motion says.

The company also says that because the plaintiffs bought their vehicles from third-party sellers and not from FCA, the required direct relationship doesn’t exist that could give rise to an implied warranty claim.

The economic loss doctrine bars the plaintiffs’ negligence claim, since the claim seeks a remedy for losses that are solely economic and don’t involve personal or property injury, FCA says. The company also argues the plaintiffs’ fraud-based claims are time-barred and are not pleaded with the required specificity.

The Jeep Wrangler class action lawsuit began this past September, when Malizia and Pustulka accused the company of failing to properly address a defect in Jeep Wrangler radiators.

Malizia says that the interior vents in his 2013 Jeep Wrangler began emitting only warm air in February of this year. He took the vehicle to a dealership, who told him the heater core would have to be replaced – a $1,300 repair job.

Pustulka says he noticed the problem in his 2013 Jeep Wrangler when the interior heater malfunctioned. An authorized FCA dealership diagnosed the problem as a failed heater core and told Pustulka he would have to have the vehicle flushed to correct the problem, at a cost of $1,500.

The plaintiffs claim the source of the defect is Fiat Chrysler’s use of combined die-casting and sand-casting to manufacture certain engine parts. They claim this process leaves excess sand in the cylinder head, which then migrates into the radiator, heater core, and oil cooler, causing a sludge-like buildup to form in these components.

Accumulation of this sludge eventually causes these engine components to fail, the plaintiffs claim.

The plaintiffs are represented by attorneys Gregory F. Coleman of Greg Coleman Law PC, John Hunter Bryson of Whitfield Bryson & Mason LLP and Mitchell M. Breit of Simmons Hanly Conroy LLC.

The Jeep Wrangler Manufacturing Defect Class Action Lawsuit is Malizia, et al. v. FCA US LLC, Case No. 1:17-cv-07039, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

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