Plaintiffs: Md. court reinstatement of class action a breakthrough

A potentially far-reaching ruling by the Maryland Court of Appeals reinstates a class action suit against several U.S. automakers even though the plaintiffs were not injured by allegedly defective seat-backs.

Plaintiffs claim seats that collapse backward in rear-impact collisions have killed or seriously injured thousands of people across the country, although none of those filing suit have been injured. The suit was filed by nine Maryland consumers who owned cars made between 1990 and 1999 by General Motors Corp., DaimlerChrysler, Ford Motor Co. or Saturn.

The state’s highest court ruled that the potential for death or serious injury was so great that the owners could sue under a purely economic loss theory.

Attorneys said the case could have far-reaching ramifications, although to date, few states have gone as far as Maryland.

“You have to start somewhere,” plaintiff attorney Jack M. Mason told The (Baltimore) Daily Record. Allowing consumers to sue for economic loss from an “uncrashworthy” defect, he said, “represents the same kind of breakthrough the lawyers had in the ’60s, where they persuaded the courts that the manufacturer had a duty to make the automobile crashworthy in the first place.”

An attorney for defendant DaimlerChrysler AG, disagreed. “We think it’s important because it’s probably the most frivolous theory for a class-action suit that is making its way through the American court system today,” spokesman Michael Palese said.