September 20, 2022
FCA US LLC Monostable Electronic Gearshift Litigation, U.S. Dist. Ct., E.D. Michigan
After a two-week trial and 2 ½ days of deliberation, a Michigan federal jury found in FCA US LLC’s favor in a common issues trial in multidistrict litigation (MDL) over whether it sold vehicles with defective gearshifts, finding that the gearshift is not defective under the laws of every state involved in the case except Utah. The trial is the first ever multi-state MDL issues class case to go to verdict. The case is FCA US LLC Monostable Electronic Gearshift Litigation, Case Number 2:16-md-02744, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.
The MDL was consolidated in Michigan federal court in 2016. The MDL covers approximately 800,000 vehicles equipped with the monostable electronic gearshift, including 2012-’14 Dodge Chargers and Chrysler 300s, and 2014-’15 Jeep Grand Cherokees. Plaintiffs contended that the monostable gear shifter was still defective despite FCA’s recall of the vehicles in 2016 and implementation of an auto park feature, which puts the cars in Park when a driver attempts to exit the vehicle with the engine running and the vehicle not in Park.
In a verdict reached Tuesday, September 20, 2022, the jury found unanimously that the evidence does not support a finding of a defect under the laws of Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington and Wyoming in answer to the first of three questions certified for the common issues trial. In Utah, the sole state where the jury found a defect, the jury answered “no” to the second certified question, finding that FCA did not conceal knowledge of the alleged defect. On the third certified question — whether information about the defect that was concealed would be material to a reasonable buyer — the jury did not answer, as it had already found that FCA did not conceal information about the defect and in all but one state, there was no defect.
FCA said in a statement that, “FCA US is pleased with this verdict and appreciates the hard work of the jury in this case. Based on the court’s prior rulings, our view is that the jury had to find for the plaintiffs on all elements of all the claims in order for their claims to survive. We consider this a complete win for FCA on the issues tried in this case.”
FCA was represented by Fred Fresard, Ian Edwards and Brandon Boxler of Klein Thomas Lee & Fresard in Troy, Michigan and John Berg of Clark Hill in Detroit, Michigan.
CASE RESULTS DEPEND UPON A VARIETY OF FACTORS UNIQUE TO EACH CASE. CASE RESULTS DO NOT GUARANTEE OR PREDICT A SIMILAR RESULT IN ANY FUTURE CASE.