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Last week, a California federal judge refused to certify a class action lawsuit related to allegations that the window regulator systems in certain American Honda Motor Co. Inc. vehicles were defective, finding that the plaintiffs failed to meet the commonality requirement for class certification.
An attorney for the plaintiffs commented Tuesday that the denial was a “brief setback,” and indicated that plaintiffs will continue discovery on the Honda window parts to satisfy the judge’s concerns.
The Honda window defect class action lawsuit was initially filed in February 2012, and alleged that Honda sold vehicles with defective window regulator systems that cause the windows to suddenly drop into the door frame and break or become stuck in the fully-open position. More than 100 Honda vehicle models and model-year variations are alleged to have the defect.
The class action lawsuit asserted that Honda knew about the alleged defect and actively concealed it from the public. As a result, the plaintiffs say they incurred out-of-pocket costs to repair the window regulator defect. In June 2013, Honda’s motion to dismiss the class action lawsuit was denied.
In the Feb. 19 motion to deny class certification, U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson indicated that the window parts in the various Honda vehicles did not appear to be made with the same materials. Because the plaintiffs did not refute Honda’s expert testimony that the parts use different materials, the plaintiffs cannot show that there is sufficient commonality to warrant class action lawsuit status. However, the judge will allow the plaintiffs to conduct additional discovery about the window parts.
Judge Wilson also pointed out other flaws in the plaintiffs’ claims, finding that the common issues among the potential Class Members do not predominate over their individual issues and that state consumer protection laws have too much variation to warrant a nationwide class. The judge referred to Mazza v. American Honda Motor Co. Inc., a 2012 decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which involved an Acrua braking defect class action lawsuit filed against Honda.
“As in Mazza, the vehicle sales and the resulting regulator defects in the instant case occurred in multiple jurisdictions outside of California, all of which have reached their own unique balance between consumer protection and competing interests,” Judge Wilson wrote. “As such, each jurisdiction has an interest in applying its own laws.”
Judge Wilson found that there were no material differences between the facts of Mazza, which was also filed in California, and the Honda window defect lawsuit. “As such, the Court finds that each Class Member’s consumer protection claim should be governed by the consumer protection laws of the jurisdiction in which the transaction took place,” he wrote.
The judge declined to consider Honda’s motion for summary judgment, finding that many of the car company’s arguments were premature and require further discovery.
The plaintiffs are represented by Jonathan Selbin, Kristen Law-Sagafi, Mark Chalos and Annika Martin of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP; Marc Godino of Glancy Binkow & Goldberg LLP; Jon Tostrud of Tostrud Law Group PC; and Barton Goplerud of Hudson Mallaney Shindler & Anderson PC.
The Honda Window Defect Class Action Lawsuit is Groditsky, et al. v. American Honda Motor Co. Inc., Case No. 2:12-cv-01142, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
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50 thoughts onHonda Window Defect Class Action Lawsuit Hits Setback
I have a Honda Pilot 2008, while holding the button to put the rear windows down, heard a pop, and motor stopped working. It happened with both rear windows. Since I don’t have the funds to fix them right now, I’m driving around with plastic overing the open windows on both sides. I will never buy another Honda if they don’t fix this problem. I’ll also tell all my friends and make it viral on the net. So disgusted.
I replaced the regulator on my 2006 Pilot last year on my drivers side. Tonight, the passenger window fell while driving. Assuming its the same thing. I payed around 300 to have it fixed last year and watched the guy fix it in 15 minutes. I stood at the window and watched it. Was still charged for the normal time quoted to fix it. I called honda to complain about being charged too much for labor and was told by the costumer service member that he would like to meet the person who was able to fix it in 15 minutes. Not happy to be having to fork out another 300 on a defective part.
2004 Honda element. Passenger side window did the same thing. 300 to fix. Hope something comes of this
DRIVER DOOR ON 07 HONDA ELEMENT….ROLLED WINDOW DOWN…HEARD A POP AND THAT WAS IT….NO MORE WINDOW…..BOOOOOOO HONDA
My 2008 Honda Element window regulator broke while my car was parked in the drive last week.
I have a 2005 Honda accord hybrid, yes I have replaced the window actuator twice in driver door and twice in passenger door each at $100 – $175.
2006 Honda element, passengers side window. Same issue.
I have an HONDA ELEMENT 2007 and have replaced 3 window regulators.. and a friend with the same year honda also had his fail… this is a problem.
I have a 2001 Honda Odyssey that we have owned 8 years. My passenger window just did the drop to full open but did not break. I found this so if you need more data points, I am another one.
2009 Honda Element — passenger window regulator broke in the open position in late 2012 or early 2013. Driver side regulator was just diagnosed by local Honda retailer as “about ready to break.” Never in my 25 years of driving and car owning have I ever known a single car to have this issue even once. Now I’m having it twice with the same car and it’s less than 6 years old?! Definitely something to this.
I own a Honda Accord Hybrid 2005 and have replaced the Driver Window Actuator twice and the passenger front window actuator once. Each time it costs over $100, and I really do believe there is some type of material defect.