LOS ANGELES – Ford Motor Co. recently motioned for sanctions against the plaintiffs across multiple lemon law cases as the automotive company has accused them of “obstructionist behavior” in the litigation process. A federal magistrate judge last week acknowledged the practices and recommended that a district court dismiss the plaintiffs’ complaints with prejudice.
On Aug. 26, defendant Ford filed its motion to U.S. District Judge Andre Birotte Jr. of the Central District of California for sanctions.
“The motion for sanctions contends that the (Consumer Legal Remedies) plaintiffs have obstructed Ford’s discovery by refusing to produce a single document in response to a document request or provide a single substantive interrogatory answer during the discovery period,” Magistrate Judge Frederick F. Mumm of the Central District of California wrote in his Oct. 17 report and recommendation to Birotte.
Ford’s allegations come at a time when automakers across the state of California are getting hammered with lemon lawsuits and plaintiff attorneys have found a way to obtain higher attorney fees than the lawsuit settlements themselves. Obstructing in order to extend the trial and their billed hours are one way of doing this.
“Ford contends that the obstructionist behavior of the CLR plaintiffs has prejudiced Ford to the extent that the cases of the CLR plaintiffs should be dismissed as a sanction under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37(d) and/or the court’s inherent powers,” Mumm wrote.
The plaintiffs filed an opposition to Ford on Sept. 10, which Ford promptly filed a reply to on Sept. 17, leading up to a hearing.
“Magistrate Judge Mumm conducted a hearing regarding the motion for sanctions on Oct. 8, 2019," Mumm's report states. "After reviewing all of the documents filed by the parties with respect to the motion for sanctions, the court concludes that the CLR plaintiffs willfully refused to comply with their discovery obligations. The CLR plaintiffs have offered no legally tenable justification for their behavior. The court further concludes that Ford has been prejudiced and that any sanction other than dismissal would not ameliorate that prejudice. Therefore, the court recommends that the CLR plaintiffs’ actions be dismissed.
"The obstructionist behavior of the CLR plaintiffs has already caused needless delay in the discovery of facts that would aid in the ultimate resolution of this litigation," Mumm wrote.
The court came up with a five-part test in determining whether or not the sanction was just: “(1) the public’s interest in expeditious resolution of litigation; (2) the court’s need to manage its dockets; (3) the risk of prejudice to the [party seeking sanctions]; (4) the public policy favoring disposition of cases on their merits; and (5) the availability of less drastic sanctions,” Mumm's report states.
In the last six years, more than 30,000 complaints have been filed against the auto industry, and each year since 2015 the number has grown. More than 8,000 complaints were filed in 2018, and this year’s pace is on track to eclipse that number.
The original lawsuits against Ford allege that transmissions in the 2012-2016 Ford Focus and the 2011-2016 Ford Fiesta are defective, particularly claiming that dual-clutch DPS6 PowerShift transmissions tend to shudder, slip, jerk, hesitate and suffer other problems.