A California judge on Wednesday rejected a bid to certify a $US3 billion national class action lawsuit claiming lethal defects in 41 million heavy duty Steeltex tyres made by Bridgestone/Firestone.
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Reuters said the legal victory for the Nashville, Tennessee-based unit of Japan’s Bridgestone Corp. came days after the tyre maker settled a $149 million class action in Texas stemming from the recall four years ago of 17 million smaller-class Wilderness tyres.
The report said a limited recall of 490,000 Steeltex tyres made for Ford Excursion sport utility vehicles was announced in February, but Bridgestone/Firestone North American Tyre insists that most Steeltex tyres made over the past 14 years are free of defects.
According to Reuters, Joseph Lisoni, a Pasadena, California lawyer, has waged a separate 20-month battle to force the company to recall up to 41 million Steeltex R4S, R4SII and A/T tyres and reimburse those who bought them – at a cost of about $3 billion.
But Indio superior court judge Christopher Sheldon reportedly ruled that Lisoni failed to present evidence that it was reasonable to bring a single, nationwide class action suit against a tyre that comes in 103 different styles.
“This case is lacking in every aspect of evidence in class certification,” Sheldon said at the end of a brief proceeding, according to Reuters.
The news agency said Lisoni vowed to appeal the decision immediately and to file a new class action case against the Japan-based parent company. He also reportedly said he would immediately file separate actions in six states – California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado and Florida – as well as the District of Columbia on behalf of individual plaintiffs in those jurisdictions.
Lisoni reportedly said he was disappointed by the decision but not surprised, telling Reuters outside the courtroom that he felt the judge was “intimidated” by such a big case.
“We’re out in a small court in the middle of the California desert,” he reportedly said, adding that the judge “was looking for a way to get it off his desk.”
Reuters said Indio is about 120 miles east of Los Angeles near the desert resort city of Palm Springs and Bridgestone/Firestone lawyers had arrived in court carrying two Steeltex tyres, one weighing 10 pounds more than the other, to dispel any notion that all of the Steeltex tyres are built the same way and might share the same defects.
“The point is the tyres are all very different. The claims are different. The laws in each of the 50 states are different,” company spokesman Dan MacDonald told Reuters.
The report said that, although both sides came to court prepared for lengthy arguments, the judge said he already had reviewed their motions and proceeded to affirm a ruling he tentatively made the day earlier against Lisoni.
Lisoni reportedly contended that to save money, Bridgestone/Firestone used a defective bonding material in Steeltex tyres that causes tread separation – the same defect that sparked the recall of Firestone Wilderness AT and ATX tyres in August 2000 which, with ensuing lawsuits over 271 deaths and hundreds of injuries, cost the company about $1.5 billion.
Reuters said that Steeltex comes as standard equipment on 71 types of vehicles, including large pickups, large SUVs, recreational vehicles and ambulances and the company estimates that about 30 million of them are still on the road.
Reuters noted that Bridgestone on Monday announced that a Texas judge had approved a $149 million settlement of class action suits sparked by the Wilderness recall though that settlement covers only the owners of Firestone tyres who were not injured.
Reuters also noted that Bridgestone in February recalled its Steeltex Radial A/T LT265/75R16 load range D tyres. The company reportedly manufactured 490,000 of those tyres and estimates that about 297,000 remain in use.
