Honda Civic Rear Suspension Defect Settlement Preliminarily Approved

A federal judge has preliminarily approved a class action lawsuit settlement between American Honda Motor Co. and consumers who allege the automaker knowingly sold Civic and Civic Hybrid models with a rear suspension defect. The deal will require Honda to replace the allegedly defective Civic parts and the prematurely worn tires it caused, and reimburse consumers who have already paid out of pocket.

On April 11, U.S. District Judge Margaret M. Morrow signed off on the Honda Civic class action settlement agreement and certified a Settlement Class consisting of all U.S. residents who currently own or lease, or previously owned or leased, a 2006 to 2007 Honda Civic or 2006 to 2008 Civic Hybrid with a VIN range of JHMFA3 85000001 – JHMFA385010456. Morrow also certified a subclass of Class Members who currently or formerly owned or leased a Civic Si.

The class action lawsuit accuses Honda of knowing that these Civic models had defective rear suspensions through pre-release testing data, early consumer complaints, testing conducted in response to the complaints, and other internal sources, yet waited until January 2008 to notify customers.

Even then, the class action lawsuit alleges, Honda did not include all class vehicles in the repair and reimbursement bulletin it issued to dealers, and actively concealed the defect from consumers.

Under the class action settlement, Honda will reimburse current and former owners who have already paid out of pocket for replacement of the control arm or of worn-out tires caused by the rear suspension defect.

Notices of the Honda Civic defect class action settlement will be sent out on or before August 9, 2013, according to court documents. [UPDATE: Detailed claim filing instructions can be found here. The deadline to file a claim is January 14, 2014.]

A Final Fairness Hearing is scheduled for October 28, 2013.

The Honda Civic Rear Suspension Defect Class Action Lawsuit Settlement case is David J. Keegan et al. v. American Honda Motor Co. Inc. et al., Case No. 10-cv-09508, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

The plaintiffs are represented by Michael Caddell, Cynthia Chapman, and Cory Fein of Caddell & Chapman, by Payam Shahian of Strategic Legal Practices APC, by the Law Office of Robert L. Starr, and by Matthew Mendelsohn and David Mazie of Mazie Slater Katz & Freeman LLC.

UPDATE: A federal judge granted final approval to the Honda Civic Tire Wear Class Action Settlement on Jan. 21, 2014. According to the Settlement Administrator, if you seek reimbursement for control arm replacement or tires, you can expect to have your claim processed and receive reimbursement by late March 2014, assuming that no one files an appeal. Updated information regarding the payment of settlement benefits will be provided at http://Settlement-Claims.com/ControlArm.

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