Sanneman v. Chrysler Corp.

191 F.R.D. 441, 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2738, 2000 WL 257452
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedMarch 2, 2000
DocketNo. 98-6044(S.D.Ill.)
StatusPublished
Cited by47 cases

This text of 191 F.R.D. 441 (Sanneman v. Chrysler Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sanneman v. Chrysler Corp., 191 F.R.D. 441, 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2738, 2000 WL 257452 (E.D. Pa. 2000).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

VAN ANTWERPEN, District Judge.

Plaintiff Sanneman (“Plaintiff’) brings this case against Defendant DaimlerChrysler Corporation, formerly known as Chrysler Corporation (“Defendant”). Specifically, Plaintiff alleges consumer fraud and deceptive business practice (Count I), fraud (Count II), breach of implied warranty of merchantability (Count III) and negligence (Count IV), all arising from the purchase of a vehicle manufactured and sold by Defendant with an allegedly defective paint job.1 Currently before the court is Plaintiffs motion for class certification, by which she seeks to establish herself as a representative of the proposed class. The Defendant has moved to oppose Plaintiffs motion, and also to preclude certification of any class. The court has before it Plaintiffs Motion for Class Certification, Defendant’s Motion in Opposition to Plaintiffs Motion for Class Certification and in Support of DaimlerChrysler’s Motion to Preclude Certification of Any Class, Plaintiffs Opposition to Chrysler’s Motion to Preclude Certification of Any Class and Defendant’s Reply thereto, and Plaintiffs Opposition to Chrysler’s Motion for Leave to File A Reply in Support of its Motion.

I. BACKGROUND

The proposed class action seeks damages against DaimlerChrysler, based upon the claim that Chrysler fraudulently concealed a paint defect in many of the vehicles it manufactured beginning on or about 1990. The material facts alleged by the Plaintiff are briefly as follows.

By 1985, many automobile manufacturers, including Defendant, were “painting many of [their] vehicle lines with the Ecoat paint system,” which involved two paint layers: an epoxy electrocoat primer (Ecoat) and an overlying topcoat. See PL’s Mem. at p. 7. According to Plaintiff, this new industry-wide system failed to prevent topcoat delamination, which became endemic among vehicles painted with the Ecoat system. Id. at 8. Topcoat delamination occurs when the Ecoat, or epoxy primer, chalks and delaminates, causing the paint to fall- off vehicles. Id. According to Plaintiff, the “root cause” of the chalking and delamination is exposure ultraviolet rays, which react with the primer.2 [444]*444Before the use of the Ecoat system, Chrysler vehicles included an intermediate coat, between the primer and the topcoat, which was “opaque primer surfacer that shielded the epoxy coat from UV.” Id. at 7. Once Chrysler began using the Ecoat system, eliminating the opaque primer surfacer, vehicle paint jobs were failing prematurely, “within just a few years of manufacture,” solely because of delamination. Id. at 15.3

Although Plaintiff asserts that ultraviolet rays are the root cause of the Ecoat delami-nation, she accepts that certain variables accelerate “a vehicle’s susceptibility to topcoat delamination.” Id. at 15. These variables, identified by PPG, one of a handful of Ecoat paint suppliers, are: (1) type and amount of UV absorbers; (2) topcoat bake; (3) color pigmentation; (4) topcoat film thickness; (5) electrocoat primer bake; and (6) electrocoat chemistry.

Plaintiffs contention is that Chrysler knew of this problem and the cause of Ecoat dela-mination due to ultraviolet ray exposure by 1990,4 but concealed its knowledge and information until 1997. Id. at 14. She states that the Defendant and/or various of its Dealerships “refused to pay the cost to repair or repaint the [damaged] vehicles,” and that when asked by potential class members about the cause of the delamination, “falsely staffed] that [it was] caused by factors not attributable to Chrysler’s ... application of primer, paint or other coating.” Am.Compl. at ¶ 17.

Plaintiff is a resident of Madison County, Illinois. Am.Compl. at ¶ 2. On January 14, 1995, she purchased a used 1990 Plymouth Voyager from an Illinois automobile dealer; Plaintiff remains in possession of the car. Id. Her claim appears to be that her vehicle was among those with the latent paint defect of Ecoat delamination that Chrysler sold without disclosing the defect to purchasers and lessees. Id. at ¶21. In 1995, shortly after purchasing the used vehicle, Plaintiff’s husband questioned a serviceman about the exterior paint during an unrelated service appointment. The paint appeared to be “chipping” from the vehicle, and Plaintiffs husband asked the serviceman to have a Chrysler representative contact him'.5 Def.’s Mot. at p. 2; see also Sanneman Dep. at p. 60. No representative ever contacted the Plaintiff or her husband, and the matter was not followed up or pursued further. Id.

In her Amended Complaint, Plaintiff sought class certification for “all those persons who purchased or leased Chrysler motor vehicles from the model years 1986-1997, inclusive, with serious paint defects that Defendants refuse to repair.” In her subsequent Motion for Class Certification, however, she has narrowed the proposed class and limited potential class members to “citizens and entities of Illinois.” She now seeks certification of three classes and one sub-class, the only proposed classes at issue here. The Common Law Fraud class, Illinois Consumer Fraud sub-class, and Breach of Express Warranty class are each defined as follows:

All citizens and entities of Illinois who: (a) are the original6 and current owner of a model year 1990-1997 Chrysler vehicle that was painted with Ecoat and no primer surfacer on which the color topcoat is presently delaminating; or (b) are the original and current owner of such a vehicle and previously paid, in whole or in part, to repaint their vehicle’s delaminating top[445]*445coat; or (c) previously owned such a vehicle and paid to repaint their vehicle’s dela-minating topcoat.

The Illinois Consumer Fraud class differs slightly from the above, as follows:

All citizens and entities of Illinois who: (a) are the current owner of a model year 1990-1997 Chrysler vehicle that was painted with Ecoat and no primer surfacer on which the color topcoat is presently dela-minating; or (b) are the current owner of such a vehicle and previously paid, in whole or in part, to repaint their vehicle’s delaminating topcoat; or (c) previously owned such a vehicle and paid to repaint their vehicle’s delaminating topcoat.

Plaintiff asserts that she is an adequate representative for the classes, and that her claims are typical of the claims of members of the proposed classes. Am.Compl. at ¶ 16.

II. DISCUSSION

Class actions are governed by Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23. A plaintiff seeking class certification “must establish that all four requisites of Rule 23(a) and at least one part of Rule 23(b) are met.” Baby Neal v. Casey, 43 F.3d 48, 55 (3d Cir.1994); see Fed.R.Civ.P. 23. Rule 23(a) provides that:

One or more members of a class may sue ... as representative parties on behalf of all only if (1) the .class is so numerous that joinder of all members is impracticable, (2) there are questions of law or fact common to the class, (3) the claims ... of the representative parties are typical of the claims ...

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
191 F.R.D. 441, 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2738, 2000 WL 257452, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sanneman-v-chrysler-corp-paed-2000.