Zepeda v. General Motors LLC

CourtDistrict Court, S.D. California
DecidedAugust 8, 2024
Docket3:23-cv-02305
StatusUnknown

This text of Zepeda v. General Motors LLC (Zepeda v. General Motors LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Zepeda v. General Motors LLC, (S.D. Cal. 2024).

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 11 SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 12 13 EMMANUAL ZEPEDA Case No.: 3:23-cv-02305-W-JLB

14 Plaintiff, ORDER GRANTING MOTION TO 15 v. DISMISS [DOC. 3] AND GRANTING REQUEST FOR 16 GENERAL MOTORS, LLC, a limited JUDICIAL NOTICE [DOC. 3-2] liability company 17 Defendant. 18 19 20 Pending before the Court is Defendant General Motors, LLC’s motion to dismiss 21 the fourth and fifth causes of action in the complaint. Defendant also asks the Court to 22 take judicial notice of certain EPA mileage range estimates. Plaintiff Emmanuel Zepeda 23 opposes the motion, but not the request for judicial notice. 24 The Court decides the matter on the papers submitted and without oral argument. 25 See Civ. R. 7.1(d)(1). For the following reasons, the Court GRANTS the request for 26 judicial notice [Doc. 3-2] and the motion to dismiss [Doc. 3] with leave to amend. 27 28 1 I. RELEVANT BACKGROUND 2 This case arises from Plaintiff’s purchase of a 2022 Chevrolet Bolt (the “Vehicle”) 3 from “Bob Stall Chevrolet, an authorized dealer and agent of General Motors” for an 4 unspecified amount “[o]n or about July 8, 2022.” (Compl. [Doc. 1-2] ¶ 6.) According to 5 Plaintiff, the Vehicle was covered by: (1) an express warranty, under which Defendant 6 promised that the Vehicle “would be free from defects in materials, nonconformities, or 7 workmanship during the applicable warranty period and to the extent the [Vehicle] had 8 defects, [Defendant] would repair the defects”; as well as (2) an implied warranty that the 9 “[Vehicle] would be of the same quality as similar vehicles . . . [and] would be fit for the 10 ordinary purposes for which similar vehicles are used.” (Id. ¶¶ 7, 8.) The Complaint 11 alleges that during the warranty period, the Vehicle “exhibited defects” and Plaintiff 12 notified Defendant of such “defects” and “attempted to invoke the applicable warranties.” 13 (Id. ¶ 10.) Yet, Plaintiff alleges Defendant failed to “make the [Vehicle] conform to the 14 applicable warranties, despite a reasonable amount of time and a reasonable number of 15 attempts to do so.” (Id. ¶ 11.) 16 Plaintiff further alleges Defendant falsely represented the “safety of the vehicle as 17 well as the expected battery usage and mileage capacity of the vehicle.” (Compl. ¶ 41.) 18 Plaintiff alleges Defendant marketed the Vehicle as “long-range” and “safe,” but the 19 Vehicle is neither long-range nor safe because the “batteries may ignite when they are 20 either fully charged or fall below seventy (70) miles remaining.” (Id. ¶¶ 40, 41.) Plaintiff 21 also alleges the Vehicle cannot be parked inside overnight due to fire risk. (Id. ¶ 40.) 22 Plaintiff alleges he would not have purchased the Vehicle if “they had known it was 23 neither safe nor functioned as advertised on General Motor’s brochures.” (Id. ¶ 46.) 24 On December 18, 2023, Plaintiff filed a lawsuit against Defendant in the San 25 Diego Superior Court, entitled Emmanuel Zepeda v. General Motors LLC, et al., No.37- 26 2023-00049807-CU-BC-CTL. The Complaint asserts three causes of action for: 27 (1) Breach of Express Warranty; (2) Breach of Implied Warranty; (3) Violation of the 28 Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act, Cal. Civil Code § 1790, et seq.; (4) Fraud; and 1 (5) Violation of California Business & Professions Code § 17200 (the “UCL”). (See 2 Compl.) 3 On or about December 18, 2023, Defendant removed the case to this Court based 4 on diversity jurisdiction. (See Notice of Removal [Doc. 1].) Defendant now moves to 5 dismiss the fourth cause of action for fraud and fifth cause of action for violation of the 6 UCL. (P&A [Doc. 3] 9:13-10:1.) Plaintiff opposes the motion and, alternatively, requests 7 leave to amend. (Opp’n [Doc. 5.] 5:19–7:22.) 8 9 II. LEGAL STANDARD 10 Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) allows a defendant to file a motion to 11 dismiss for failing “to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.” FED. R. CIV. P. 12 12(b)(6). A motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6) tests the complaint’s sufficiency. See 13 N. Star Int’l v. Ariz. Corp. Comm’n., 720 F.2d 578, 581 (9th Cir. 1983). A complaint 14 may be dismissed as a matter of law either for lack of a cognizable legal theory or for 15 insufficient facts under a cognizable theory. Robertson v. Dean Witter Reynolds, Inc., 16 749 F.2d 530, 534 (9th Cir. 1984). In evaluating the motion, the Court must assume the 17 truth of all factual allegations and must “construe them in light most favorable to the 18 nonmoving party.” Gompper v. VISX, Inc., 298 F.3d 893, 895 (9th Cir. 2002). 19 To survive a motion to dismiss, a complaint must contain “a short and plain 20 statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief.” FED. R. CIV. P. 21 8(a)(2). The Supreme Court has interpreted this rule to mean that “[f]actual allegations 22 must be enough to raise a right to relief above the speculative level.” Bell Atl. Corp. v. 23 Twombly, 550 U.S. 554, 555 (2007). The allegations in the complaint must “contain 24 sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to ‘state a claim to relief that is plausible on its 25 face.’” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009) (quoting Twombly, 550 U.S. at 570). 26 Although well-pled allegations in the complaint are assumed true, a court is not required 27 to accept legal conclusions couched as facts, unwarranted deductions, or unreasonable 28 1 inferences. Papasan v. Allain, 478 U.S. 265, 286 (1986); Sprewell v. Golden State 2 Warriors, 266 F.3d 979, 988 (9th Cir. 2001). 3 When a complaint alleges fraud, it must also “state with particularity the 4 circumstances constituting fraud or mistake.” FED. R. CIV. P. 9(b). Thus, for affirmative 5 misrepresentation allegations, the complaint must allege the “who, what, when, where, 6 and how of the misconduct charged” and explain “what is false or misleading about a 7 statement, and why it is false.” Ebeid ex rel. U.S. v. Lungwitz, 616 F.3d 993, 998 (9th 8 Cir. 2010). The same is true for UCL causes of action, to the extent that they allege fraud 9 or facts that constitute fraud. Vess v. Ciba-Geigy Corp. USA, 317 F.3d 1097, 1105 (9th 10 Cir. 2003). “Malice, intent, knowledge, and other conditions of a person’s mind may be 11 alleged generally.” FED. R. CIV. P. 9(b). However, these allegations of malice, intent, 12 knowledge, and mental state still cannot be conclusory or speculative as they remain 13 subject to Rule 8. 14 For fraudulent concealment claims, courts typically do not require the same level 15 of specificity as they do for affirmative misrepresentation. Baggett v. Hewlett-Packard 16 Co., 582 F. Supp. 2d 1261, 1267–68 (C.D. Cal.

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Related

Papasan v. Allain
478 U.S. 265 (Supreme Court, 1986)
Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly
550 U.S. 544 (Supreme Court, 2007)
Ashcroft v. Iqbal
556 U.S. 662 (Supreme Court, 2009)
Ebeid Ex Rel. United States v. Lungwitz
616 F.3d 993 (Ninth Circuit, 2010)
Robert S. Robertson v. Dean Witter Reynolds, Inc.
749 F.2d 530 (Ninth Circuit, 1984)
Kearns v. Ford Motor Co.
567 F.3d 1120 (Ninth Circuit, 2009)
Moss v. U.S. Secret Service
572 F.3d 962 (Ninth Circuit, 2009)
Baggett v. Hewlett-Packard Co.
582 F. Supp. 2d 1261 (C.D. California, 2007)
Falk v. General Motors Corp.
496 F. Supp. 2d 1088 (N.D. California, 2007)
Bigler-Engler v. Breg, Inc.
7 Cal. App. 5th 276 (California Court of Appeal, 2017)
Sprewell v. Golden State Warriors
266 F.3d 979 (Ninth Circuit, 2001)
Gompper v. Visx, Inc.
298 F.3d 893 (Ninth Circuit, 2002)
Vess v. Ciba-Geigy Corp. USA
317 F.3d 1097 (Ninth Circuit, 2003)
Welk v. Beam Suntory Import Co.
124 F. Supp. 3d 1039 (S.D. California, 2015)

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Zepeda v. General Motors LLC, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/zepeda-v-general-motors-llc-casd-2024.