— A Honda infotainment system class action lawsuit will continue in court even though several claims were dismissed.
The original class action involved Honda Civics only, but the current version of the lawsuit includes 2016-2020 Honda Civics, 2016-2020 Accords and 2016-2020 Honda CR-Vs.
According to the Honda infotainment class action, the systems freeze, crash and cause failures of the heating, ventilation, air conditioning, radios, display screens, Bluetooth/phones and backup cameras.
The six plaintiffs who sued claim the infotainment systems create unreasonable safety hazards by causing drivers to become distracted. Losing the navigation system is also dangerous, as is losing the ability to use the phone.
Then there are problems with the rearview cameras and how the images can distort and fail to show rearview images.
According to the Honda infotainment class action lawsuit, Honda knew in 2015 about problems with the infotainment systems but concealed the alleged defects. And the plaintiffs assert replacing the infotainment systems doesn't fix the problem because Honda allegedly uses defective systems as replacements.
The Honda infotainment class action was filed by these owners:
- Constance Chiulli / California / 2019 Honda Civic
- Joshua Meisel / California / 2016 Honda Civic
- Jacob Montgomery / Florida / 2017 Honda Accord Touring
- Jedediah Beech / Maryland / 2017 Honda Civic
- David Susseles / Maryland / 2018 Honda Accord
- Thomas Kreidel / Virginia / 2016 Honda Accord
Honda Infotainment Class Action Continues
Honda filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit and argued the plaintiffs lacked standing to file claims for vehicles they never leased, purchased or used.
Honda argued there is, "a split in authority among district courts in the Ninth Circuit whether plaintiffs have Article III standing to bring claims for products they did not personally purchase but that were purchased by unnamed class members."
However, the infotainment judge ruled against the automaker because, "class action plaintiffs can bring claims for products they did not purchase as long as the products and alleged misrepresentations are substantially similar."
In this case, the plaintiffs contend all the vehicles are equipped with the same defective infotainment systems.
Honda did succeed in convincing the judge to dismiss several claims regarding express and implied warranty, unjust enrichment, fraudulent concealment and consumer protection claims.
However, the judge ruled even though those claims were dismissed, the plaintiffs could amend and refile their infotainment class action lawsuit for the third time.
The Honda infotainment class action lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California: Constance Chiulli v. American Honda Motor Co., Inc. et al.
The plaintiffs are represented by Capstone Law APC.