Toyota Sun Damage Class Action Lawsuit Stays in Federal Court

In a class action lawsuit alleging that Texas heat caused damage to the interior of certain Toyota model automobiles, the 5th Circuit ruled to keep the case in federal court, rather than send it back to a state venue.

In November of 2014, lead plaintiffs Felicia Carter and Nevalyn Farley filed a lawsuit against Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc. In their filing, the plaintiffs alleged that the dashboards and door panels of their Lexus and Toyota model vehicles became “sticky, oily, shiny, cracked and degraded in appearance” due to exposure to hot conditions in Texas. The plaintiffs further said that the damage occurred due to defects in the models and filed claims for products liability, fraud, and breach of implied warranty.

In response, Toyota asked for the case to be moved to federal court under the Class Action Fairness Act. The car company argued that the amount in controversy exceeds $5 million and, under the Act, the case should be held in federal court.

The plaintiffs alleged that the amount in controversy did not amount to more than $5 million, but only $2.9 million. According to documents filed by the auto maker, the class action lawsuit was properly moved to federal court because while amount in controversy is only $2.9 million according to the plaintiffs’ calculations, by multiplying the cost to repair the damaged dashboards and door panels by the number of alleged Class Members, 1,001, and then adding exemplary damages and attorneys’ fees, the total exceeds $5 million.

While in federal court, the class action was dismissed with prejudice. The plaintiffs appealed and countered by arguing that the district court should not have used the car maker’s calculations to move the class action to federal court in the first place.

Last week, the 5th circuit dismissed the plaintiffs’ appeal to move the case back to state court. In their order, the 5th Circuit pointed out that the plaintiffs had not only claimed that the car maker’s determination of the amount in controversy was “grossly inflated,” but had offered nothing to establish that the court’s determination to move the case to federal court was based on that amount was an error.

“Plaintiffs failed to introduce any evidence suggesting that defendants’ evidence presented an inaccurate picture of the amount in controversy,” said the Fifth Circuit in its order. “And plaintiffs have not demonstrated that the district court incorrectly interpreted defendants’ evidence or calculations.”

“Accordingly, we hold that the district court committed no error in concluding that jurisdiction under CAFA was proper or in denying plaintiffs’ motion to remand,” concluded the Fifth Circuit in its ruling affirming the district court judgment.

The plaintiffs are represented by Robert Gordon Taylor III of R.G. Taylor II PC & Associates.

The Toyota Sun Damage Class Action Lawsuit is Carter, et. al. v. Westlex Corp., et. al., Case No. 15-20561, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.