Mercedes-Benz USA LLC made a successful preemptive strike against class certification in a proposed class action suit over alleged suspension problems in GL model Mercedes vehicles. See Becnel v. Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC, No. 2:14-cv-00003 (E.D. La., 6/3/14).

This matter arose from Plaintiff’s claims for negligence, strict product liability, breach of implied warranty, fraud, and violations of the Louisiana Unfair Trade Practice Act,and the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act. Plaintiff’s claims arise from his purchase of a 2008 Mercedes-Benz GL320 from Mercedes-Benz of New Orleans.  Plaintiff brought the vehicle to the Dealer for service several times. Each time that Becnel tendered the vehicle to the Dealer, the Airmatic Suspension System allegedly was cited as the problem and was repaired. Plaintiff alleged that MBUSA knew that the Suspension System was defective but concealed that fact from current, future, and past owners and/or lessors of GL model vehicles. Plaintiff filed a class action complaint on January 2, 2014 against MBUSA on behalf of “[a]ll current and past owners or people who leased Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC GL model of vehicles since 2007.”

Defendant moved to strike the class allegations. The standard applied to the motion to strike is essentially identical to the standard applied in class certification motions. See Grant,2010 WL 3303853; see also Markey v. Louisiana Citizens Fair Plan, 2008 WL 5427708 (E.D. La. Dec. 30, 2008)(Vance, J.) ; Truxillo v.Johnson & Johnson, et al., 2007 WL 4365439 *1 (E.D. La. Dec. 12, 2007)(Barbier, J.) (noting that the issues raised in a motion for judgment on the pleadings regarding class allegations overlap with the issues raised in a motion to certify the class.)

Defendant advanced several arguments in support of its motion to strike.   For example, MBUSA contended that due process barred the Court from applying Louisiana law to all the claims of absent class members from other states, and that the application of every other applicable state’s laws would be unmanageable. Plaintiff suggested that this argument was premature. He argued that despite the potential for uncommon issues of law, it cannot be denied that there were some common issues of fact. Even if the Court would have to engage in a conflicts analysis to determine if the various state laws were incompatible, that only means that class certification may be improper further along in litigation, but was not improper now.

The court focused on the predominance and manageability challenges that were presented by the proposed class. The Court said it could not accept Plaintiff’s assertion that he “cannot foresee any manageability problems.” Based on the pleadings alone, the Court pointed to several issues: it was reasonable to assume that this matter will require the application of laws from fifty-one different jurisdictions, as it was readily apparent that at least one person from every state and the District of Columbia will be found to have purchased or leased a 2007 GL Class Mercedes. The Court anticipated serious manageability issues in applying these differing laws to Plaintiff’s numerous state law causes of action, including claims for: negligence; products liability based on manufacturing defects, design defects, warning defects, and breach of express warranty; redhibition; fraudulent concealment; and unfair trade practices.

Additionally, Plaintiff, and presumably other class members, faced serious prescription.statute of limitations issues that would ultimately hinge on their ability to show that the discovery doctrine tolled the prescriptive period. The use of the discovery doctrine would necessarily involve the task of determining at what time it became unreasonable for each class member to ignore the problems with the vehicles at issue. See Chevron USA, Inc. v. Aker Mar., Inc., 604 F.3d 888, 893-94(5th Cir. 2010) (noting that in such cases, “the prescriptive period [does] not begin to run until [a plaintiff has] a reasonable basis to pursue a claim against a specific defendant.”) The same issue would present itself with regard to the fraud claims, in that the Court would have to determine the element of reliance for each and every class member. See Castano, 84 F.3d at 745 (“fraud class action cannot be certified when individual reliance will be an issue.”)

These serious manageability problems far outweighed any benefit that a class action would create, said the court. Plaintiff conclusorily pointed to the usual presumed benefits highlighted in class certification motions, but did not propose any concrete strategy for achieving these goals. In light of the manageability issues. The Court said it could not imagine that that the many issues that would require individual treatment for each class member would not outweigh or at least balance out any benefit conferred by class treatment.

Motion to strike granted.