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Ysbrand v. DaimlerChrysler Corp.2/25/2003
NOTICE: THIS OPINION HAS NOT BEEN RELEASED FOR PUBLICATION IN THE PERMANENT LAW REPORTS. UNTIL RELEASED, IT IS SUBJECT TO REVISION OR WITHDRAWAL.
Buyers asserted warranty and common law fraud claims against automobile manufacturer for alleged defects in front passenger seat air bags of certain of its minivans. Matter was certified as class action and manufacturer appeals.
AFFIRMED IN PART; REVERSED IN PART.
This opinion reviews the trial court's determination that this dispute meets the requirements for a class action found at Title 12, section 2023, of the Oklahoma Statutes. The class certification order is affirmed as to the warranty claims asserted but is reversed as to the claim for fraud and deceit.
Defendant, DaimlerChrysler, is a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business in Michigan. It manufactured over one million 1996 and 1997 model "minivans" equipped with front passenger seat air bags. Plaintiffs, each an owner of one of the minivans, have asserted Uniform Commercial Code claims for "breach of express warranty," "breach of implied warranty of merchantability," and "breach of implied warranty of fitness." In addition, they assert a claim for "fraud and deceit."
Plaintiffs' claims are based on their assertion that the front passenger seat air bags are defective due to "1) their propensity to deploy with overly aggressive force and 2) their propensity to deploy during a low speed collision." Plaintiffs further assert that DaimlerChrysler failed to warn purchasers that this defect has the potential to kill or seriously injure a child or small adult seated in the front passenger seat. According to Plaintiffs, there are air bags available which deploy with less force and at higher collision speeds. They claim that these bags are currently used as replacements when a bag has been deployed. Plaintiffs seek damages in an amount sufficient to allow owners to install the "safer" air bags or, in the alternative, replacement of the "defective" air bags by DaimlerChrysler.
Following initial discovery and a hearing, the trial court issued a twenty-one page order certifying a class consisting of Plaintiffs and
ll entities and adult persons domiciled or residing in any of the fifty states of the United States of America or in the District of Columbia, who purchased and who, according to motor vehicle registration records maintained by their respective states or districts of residence or domicile, can be identified as the current owner of at least one (1) model year 1996-1997 "minivan" automobile marketed by defendant as Chrysler Town & Country or Chrysler Minivan or Plymouth Voyager or Plymouth Grand Voyager or Dodge Caravan, which was manufactured by defendant for sale in any of the fifty states of the United States of America or the District of Columbia, or which defendant marketed in any of the fifty states of the United States of America or the District of Columbia as a product of its own manufacture, which was configured at the time of original sale or occupancy by at least five (5) passengers, and which contains on the driver side and/or passenger side of the forward seating area a passive restraint system commonly known as an "air bag," which employs a fabric-covered envelope designed to expand rapidly with sodium azide or other gases and thus cushion a front-seat occupant when the system is activated by a sensor during a frontal collision.
Excluded from the class were (1) those who have suffered personal injury from air bag deployment, (2) DaimlerCrysler employees and affiliates, (3) judges and judicial personnel, (4) those who have had their air bags deactivated, and (5) tho
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