Daily Treat: Woman Sues Honda And Could Get Honda Pays $2 Billion

Woman Sues Honda And Could Get Honda Pays $2 Billion - A Los Angeles woman who expected her hybrid Honda Civic to be a high-mileage machine wishes the automaker to pay for not delivering the 50 mpg it promised. But than being of thousands in a class-action lawsuit, he took her case Tuesday to small claims court.
Specialists said Heather Peters has a better chance of winning her case in a court with more relaxed standards & could receive a payout plenty of times higher than the few hundred dollars offered to class-action plaintiffs.


Peters said she is been contacted by hundreds of owners who also need to take their chances with small-claims, where there's no attorneys' fees & cases are decided quickly.


"If I prevail & get $10,000, they have 200,000 of these cars out there," said Peters.
Peters, a state worker & ex-lawyer, argued that Honda knew her automobile would not get the 50 mpg as advertised before a judge in Torrance, where American Honda Motor Co. has its West Coast headquarters.

Heather Peters

As her 2006 vehicle's battery deteriorated over time, it barely got 30 mpg, he said.
Neil Schmidt, a technical specialist for Honda, called Peters' $10,000 claim excessive for her 2006 Civic Hybrid.
He said the federal government had necessary Honda to post the highest mileage the automobile could get, but said the mileage varies depending on how the automobile is driven - for example, if it gets stuck often in stop-and-go traffic.
Peters said he would have never bought the automobile if he had known that.


"The sales force said 50 miles per gallon, but they didn't say in the event you run your air conditioning & you stay in stop-and-go traffic, you are going to get 29 to 30 miles per gallon," he said. "If they did, I would have gotten the regular Civic."


Peters never contacted Honda to complain or express any concern about her vehicle's fuel economy until he sent a letter in late November 2011 & then filed her suit soon thereafter, Honda said in a statement Tuesday.
In response, Peters said he did not write to Honda's corporate offices sooner because he was repeatedly told by Honda dealers that the company had a strict policyowner not to replace batteries until the dashboard warning light was lit.
In a statement, the company also said that it offered to inspect her vehicle & work together with her on the findings, but those offers were rejected. Peters called that claim "absolutely false."


The company also said it did not think Peters was deceived. "The window sticker that was attached to her vehicle (as necessary by federal law) clearly indicated that her mileage would vary depending on driving conditions, options, vehicle condition & other factors," the statement said.


But if Peters wins, & other Civic owners follow her lead, he estimates Honda could be forced to pay as much as $2 billion in damages.

Neil Schmidt, representing Honda, left

Specialists say there's plenty of upsides to Peters' unusual move.
"I would not be surprised if he won," said Richard Cupp Jr., who teaches product-liability law at Pepperdine University. "The judge will have plenty of discretion, & the evidentiary standards are relaxed in small-claims court."


Small claims courts usually handle private disputes that do not involve large amounts of money. In plenty of states, that means small debts, quarrels between tenants & landlords & contract disagreements. Attorneys are not usually there; in Indiana, litigants are not allowed to have lawyers argue their case.


A victory for Peters could encourage others to take the same simplified route, they said.
"There's an elderly saying among lawyers," Cupp said. "If you require actual justice, go to small-claims court."


But they questioned whether her move would start a groundswell of similar cases. They suggested that few people would require to spend the time & energy that Peters has put in to her suit when the potential payoff is as small as a few thousand dollars.


Peters opted out of a series of class-action lawsuits filed on behalf of Honda hybrid owners over the cars' fuel economy, when they saw a proposed settlement would give plaintiffs no over $200 money & a rebate of $500 or $1,000 to buy a new Honda. Honda sold about 200,000 of the cars over the period covered by the settlement.


The settlement would give trial lawyers $8.5 million, Peters said.
"I was shocked," they said. "I wrote to Honda & said I would take $7,500, which was then the limit on small claims in Indiana. It is going up to $10,000 in 2012."


Typical limits in other states range from $2,500 to $15,000.
"I wrote the letter & I said, 'If you don't reply, I will file a suit in small-claims court.' I gave them my phone number," they said. "They seldom called."


They said they also sent emails to top executives at Honda but got no response. They filed legal papers seeking reimbursement for the difference in the acquisition cost of the hybrid & the additional money they spent on gas.


Aaron Jacoby, a Los Angeles attorney who heads the automotive industry group at the Arent Fox law firm, said Peters' strategy, while intriguing, is unlikely to change the work of class-action litigation.
"In the class-action, the potential claimants don't must do anything," Jacoby said. "It's designed to be an efficient way for a court to handle multiple claims of the same type."


Jacoby also defended the size of lawyers' fees in such settlements, saying class-action lawyers do extensive work that involves plenty of clients & sometimes spans years.
& they are not in it for money.
"They're representing the underdog, & they think they are performing a public duty," they said. "Many of these people could not get lawyers to represent them individually."


Superior Court Commissioner Douglas Carnahan issued no immediate ruling in Peters' case Tuesday, but his staff said they would rule this week. Civil class-action cases  always take years to resolve.
A judge in San Diego County is due to rule in March on whether to approve Honda's class-action settlement offer for hybrid owners. Members of the class have until Feb. 11 to accept or decline the deal.


Peters has launched an online site, DontSettleWithHonda.org, urging others to take their complaints to small-claims court. They said Tuesday that over 500 other Honda owners, including some who live in Australia, contacted her & require to follow her lead - Woman Sues Honda And Could Get Honda Pays $2 Billion.