Bronson-v-Samsung Electronics America, Inc.

CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedSeptember 29, 2019
Docket3:18-cv-02300
StatusUnknown

This text of Bronson-v-Samsung Electronics America, Inc. (Bronson-v-Samsung Electronics America, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bronson-v-Samsung Electronics America, Inc., (N.D. Cal. 2019).

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 ALEXIS BRONSON and CRYSTAL No. C 18-02300 WHA HARDIN, on behalf of themselves and all 12 others similarly situated, 13 Plaintiffs, ORDER DENYING MOTION FOR PRELIMINARY 14 v. APPROVAL OF CLASS SETTLEMENT 15 SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS AMERICA, INC. and SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., 16 LTD., 17 Defendants. / 18 19 INTRODUCTION 20 In this putative class action under the Song-Beverly Act and Section 17200 of the 21 California Business and Professions Code, plaintiff Crystal Hardin moves to certify a class for 22 purposes of settlement and for preliminary approval of the class settlement. For the reasons 23 below, the motion for preliminary approval of class settlement is DENIED. Because the 24 settlement falls, the motion to certify the settlement class is DENIED AS MOOT. 25 STATEMENT 26 The Song-Beverly Act requires “[e]very manufacturer making an express warranty with 27 respect to an electronic or appliance product” to “make available to service and repair facilities 28 sufficient service literature and functional parts to effect the repair of a product for at least 1 seven-year period exceeds the warranty period for the product.” CAL. CIV. CODE § 1793.03(b). 2 Defendants Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. and Samsung Electronics America, Inc. 3 manufactured plasma televisions during our period in question. 4 Plaintiffs Crystal Hardin and Alexis Bronson each bought Samsung plasma televisions 5 in 2013. Both television sets had been manufactured in 2013 and later developed colored-lines 6 on the screen. In 2018, each plaintiff was separately told by two different Samsung-authorized 7 service and repair facilities that a spare part was not available to fix their televisions. Further 8 factual and procedural details follow. 9 Turning first to plaintiff Hardin, in March 2013, plaintiff Hardin purchased a Samsung 10 plasma television from a local Best Buy store. The television did not work. Best Buy offered, 11 and plaintiff Hardin accepted, a more expensive television as a replacement at no cost. Three 12 years later, in November 2016, the more expensive television screen began to exhibit colored- 13 lines on the screen. By November 2017, the colored-lines had infected the screen to the degree 14 that the television could no longer be used. In February 2018, plaintiff Hardin called an 15 authorized repair center, TV Unlimited in Morgan Hill, to ask if the colored-lines could be 16 fixed. The repair center informed plaintiff Hardin that the necessary part was not available 17 (Hardin Dep. 61:1–12; 62:1–4; 71:24–72:1; 81:20–25; 86:19–87:1) (Dkt. No. 193-5). 18 Now for plaintiff Bronson. In August 2013, plaintiff Bronson purchased a Samsung 51- 19 inch plasma Smart 3D HDTV television from a Best Buy store in Union City. Within months, 20 his television displayed colored-lines on the screen. In April 2014, plaintiff Bronson called 21 Samsung about the colored-lines, and Samsung twice replaced the offending part under 22 warranty. In August 2015, plaintiff Bronson called Samsung about a different defect: the 23 television would abruptly turn on and off. At that point, however, the express warranty had run. 24 Plaintiff Bronson eventually paid an authorized service and repair facility, Alpha TV & 25 Electronics in Oakland, out of pocket to fix the on-and-off defect in May 2017. Plaintiff 26 retrieved his television from the repair center in June 2017. The colored-lines thereafter 27 returned (Bronson Dep. 91:8–12; 100:1–3, 18–23; 103:10–13; 110:2–7, 19–21; 111:13–16) 28 (Dkt. Nos. 122-4; 122-5). 1 The procedural history of this action is as follows. Plaintiff Bronson (but not plaintiff 2 Hardin) commenced this putative class action in April 2018. He alleged class-claims under the 3 aforementioned Section 1793.03(b) of the California Civil Code and under Section 17200 of the 4 California Business and Professions Code (Dkt. No. 1). In June 2018, plaintiff Bronson 5 amended his complaint primarily adding a claim under the California Consumer Legal 6 Remedies Act (Dkt. No. 35). Rule 12 practice followed (Dkt. Nos. 53, 63, 64, 67, 68, 77). In 7 November 2018, an order granted each defendants’ motion to dismiss in full (Dkt. No. 84). 8 In October 2018, plaintiff Bronson returned to Alpha TV & Electronics and asked 9 whether a replacement part for the television screen was available. An employee there told him 10 it was not (Bronson Dep. 158:5–9; 169–170) (Dkt. No. 128-3). 11 Subsequently, in November 2018, plaintiff Bronson moved for leave to amend his 12 complaint, adding this new fact and alleging claims only under Section 1793.03(b) of the 13 California Civil Code and a derivative violation of Section 17200 of the California Business and 14 Professions Code (Dkt. No. 86). In addition, plaintiff Hardin sought to intervene in the lawsuit. 15 In January 2019, an order granted plaintiff Bronson leave to amend and permitted plaintiff 16 Hardin to intervene (Dkt. No. 95). 17 One week later, plaintiffs filed the operative complaint (Dkt. No. 98). The operative 18 complaint alleged classes under both Rule 23(b)(2) and Rule 23(b)(3). Specifically, the 19 operative complaint defined the class as follows: “[w]ithin the applicable statute of limitations, 20 all persons in the State of California who purchased a Samsung plasma television manufactured 21 between January 2009 and November 30, 2014 and experienced a red line issue, for which the 22 plasma display panel assembly was unavailable” (Dkt. No. 98 ¶ 70). 23 In April 2019, Samsung moved for summary judgment (Dkt. No. 122). In May 2019, 24 plaintiff Bronson (but not plaintiff Hardin) moved for partial summary judgment (Dkt. No. 25 130). Two orders issued. The first denied Samsung’s summary judgment motion (Dkt. No. 26 154), and the second granted plaintiff Bronson’s partial summary judgment motion (Dkt. No. 27 171). In short, Samsung had not made functional parts available to service and repair facilities 28 for plaintiff Bronson’s television as required by Section 1793.03(b). 1 An order also permitted the scope of discovery to extend to television models other than 2 those owned by the plaintiffs. More specifically, the order permitted discovery for “plasma 3 television models purchased in 2013 and 2014 which contain[ed] the identical [faulty] part as 4 plaintiffs’ specific plasma televisions” (Dkt. No. 155 at 3) (emphasis in original). Thus, as 5 relevant for the instant motion, since the television model plaintiff Hardin owned contained the 6 identical faulty part (part number BN96-25240A), as two other models of television (models 7 PN51F5300 and PN51F5350) — discovery extended as to those models as well. Plaintiff 8 Hardin’s model is numbered PN51F5500. 9 Since May 2019, the parties have engaged in multiple settlement discussions. In June 10 2019, plaintiff Hardin (but not plaintiff Bronson) moved for class certification (Dkt. No. 173). 11 In August 2019, after the motion was fully briefed, the parties struck an agreement on a 12 settlement class. The parties stipulated to an order vacating the class certification hearing and 13 proposed that “[a]ll other deadlines [be] held in abeyance pending the Court’s consideration of 14 the forthcoming motion” (Dkt. Nos. 198; 198-2). An order modified the stipulation to hold in 15 abeyance only the motion for class certification (Dkt. No. 199). 16 In September 2019, plaintiff moved for certification of the settlement class and for 17 preliminary approval of class settlement (Dkt. No. 203). Samsung did not oppose. The parties 18 now march together. 19 Under the proposed settlement agreement, counsel abandoned certification of a Rule 20 23(b)(3) class, in-lieu of an injunctive-only class under Rule 23(b)(2). That is, although the 21 operative complaint sought class damages, the class would now receive zero dollars under the 22 deal.

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Bluebook (online)
Bronson-v-Samsung Electronics America, Inc., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bronson-v-samsung-electronics-america-inc-cand-2019.