Renewed Class Action Motion Filed in Volvo Sunroof Case
February 12, 2016 by Jenna Reed
jreed@glass.com
Volvo vehicle owners have served a renewed motion for class certification on the automaker. The owners allege Volvo’s sunroofs harbor a defect, allowing water to flood the vehicles. The five-year class action suit was recently given new life after the U.S. District Court of New Jersey judge opened the door for the renewed motion.
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals had vacated a previous class certification last year and remanded the case back to the lower court.
“Plaintiffs have served their renewed motion for class certification and all accompanying papers upon counsel for defendants,” according to court documents.
The judge had asked that the motion be served but not filed.
Given the new motion, Volvo seeks access to additional discovery.
“For example, some of the named plaintiffs who are proposed as class representatives have driven their vehicles for nearly five years since they were deposed,” according to court documents. “If they have not experienced any further instance of a clogged sunroof drain, that evidence would be extremely probative of the purported common defect.”
In their response, plaintiffs’ attorneys say, “The motion is a thinly veiled effort to further delay these proceedings, harass these former class representatives and third parties, seek an end-run around the court’s Daubert rulings, and is entirely without merit.”
The six states the District Court judge had originally granted as subclasses for class action were Massachusetts, Florida, Hawaii, New Jersey, California and Maryland.
The plaintiffs contend the alleged “defect” sunroofs are on Volvo’s S40, S60, S80, V50 (model years 2004 to present), XC90 (model years 2003 to present) and V50 (model years 2005 to present).
The suit was filed in 2010 in U.S. District Court by Joanne Neale of Needham, Mass., and seven other owners.
The judge had not issued any new decisions at press time.
