Volkswagen Escapes Jetta Lock Defect Class Action Lawsuit
By Anne Bucher
A Florida federal judge has dismissed a putative class action lawsuit accusing Volkswagen Group of America Inc. of manufacturing Jetta sedans with defective locks, finding that the plaintiffs’ claims were barred because they fell outside of the statute of limitations and that they were not covered under Volkswagen’s warranty.
Plaintiffs Oliver Licul and Scheherezade Marles filed the class action lawsuit over allegations that 1999-2012 Jettas contained defective door-locking mechanisms that would unexpectedly become stuck in either the “locked” or “unlocked” position. The plaintiffs claim that this alleged defect makes passengers susceptible to being locked in or out of their vehicles, and makes their vehicles vulnerable to criminal activity.
According to the class action lawsuit, Marles purchased a new Jetta in April 2001, which came with a two-year/24,000-mile limited warranty that covered repairs to correct manufacturer’s defects. She subsequently sold the Jetta to her husband in 2006, before the lock defect manifested. In 2011, the front driver-side door lock on the Jetta froze in the “locked” position. The locks on the rear doors reportedly failed in 2012.
The plaintiffs allege that Volkswagen knew of the alleged Jetta door lock defect as early as 2000 but concealed the defect from consumers. They asserted five causes of action in their class action lawsuit, including breach of express warranty, breach of the duty of good faith and fair dealing, unjust enrichment, and violations of the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act and the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act (FDUTPA).
On Thursday, U.S. District Judge James I. Cohn granted Volkswagen’s motion to dismiss the class action lawsuit, finding that the two-year warranty expired long before the alleged door lock defects manifested and that the plaintiffs did not sufficiently plead that the warranty period was unconscionable. The unjust enrichment claim failed because, according to the judge, it “is a vague catch-all that does no more than incorporate by reference the alleged wrongdoing already addressed by their other legal causes of action, and thus should be dismissed as duplicative.”
Judge Cohn found that the plaintiffs’ claims under FDUTPA failed because “Marles purchased the Jetta at a price that did not take account of the defect, and she sold the Jetta at a price that did not take account of the defect. She therefore did not suffer the loss of any value in the Jetta that could constitute ‘actual damages.’”
Further, the judge found that the plaintiffs’ FDUTPA claims are time-barred because the statute of limitation expires four years from the date of sale. He rejected their arguments that the statute of limitations should be tolled due to Volkswagen’s alleged fraudulent concealment, finding that the plaintiffs did not back up their “conclusory labels” with facts.
The judge will give the plaintiffs until Dec. 20, 2013 to file an amended class action lawsuit with regard to Licol’s FDUTPA claims, finding that they may be able to allege additional facts to justify tolling the statute of limitations under the fraudulent concealment doctrine.
The plaintiffs are represented by Nathan C. Zipperian, Scott R. Shepherd and James C. Shah of Shepherd Finkelman Miller & Shah LLP, and Mark Schlachet.
The Volkswagen Jetta Lock Defect Class Action Lawsuit is Oliver Licul, et al. v. Volkswagen Group of America Inc., Case No. 0:13-cv-61686, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
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