![]() BSH’s lawyers at Jones Day want the Supreme Court to take up their case to determine not just whether a class can be certified without a classwide showing of injury but also whether the trial court erred in curtailing BSH’s challenge to the theories of the consumers’ experts. In the BSH case, the 9th Circuit declined to review the trial court’s grant of certification to four statewide consumer classes. The primary purpose of the amicus brief, which was filed last Friday by Mayer Brown as counsel of record for both Sears and Whirlpool, is to ask the Supreme Court to delay acting on a petition for certiorari by BSH Home Appliances, which sells Bosch and Siemens washers with an alleged mold problem similar to that of Whirlpool’s machines. Unless the justices take action, according to Sears and Whirlpool, American businesses face enormous new exposure to claims by consumers, including buyers who haven’t even suffered any ill effects. Now, in an amicus brief in a third moldy-washer case before the Supreme Court, Sears and Whirlpool are arguing that under the reasoning the 6th and 7th Circuits used in those recertification opinions, there are virtually no limits on product liability class actions. Over the summer, both the 6th and 7th Circuits recertified consumer classes, despite Comcast. Last spring, it vacated class certification rulings from the 6th and 7th Circuit Courts of Appeal, asking the appellate judges to reconsider their rulings in light of the Supreme Court’s holding in Comcast v. Two of those cases have already attracted the high court’s attention. Supreme Court opens its next term in October, one of the justices’ critical decisions will be whether to grant review of one or more of the three defective-washer cases that will be before them. judge chides Cobell lawyers for trying to squelch appeal Manufacturers, on the other hand, contend it’s impossible to lump consumers into classes because their individual experiences with the machines vary too widely.ĭ.C. Consumers say – and appellate judges in two federal circuits agree – that they’re entitled to a classwide determination of whether the washing machines were defectively designed. One of those consolidated cases, involving 10 class actions comprising about 4 million purchasers of Whirlpool washing machines, is one of the biggest class proceedings in American history. ![]() Nevertheless, lawyers representing washing machine buyers all over the country sued Whirlpool and other manufacturers in dozens of class actions claiming violations of various state consumer statutes. The vast majority of those machines didn’t end up emitting the objectionable scent, or, at least, not noticeably enough to prompt their owners to register complaints with manufacturers and sellers of the machines. Millions of American consumers over the last decade purchased high-end, front-loading washing machines with an unfortunate propensity to develop a moldy odor. ![]()
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