A jury has put the brakes on a class action lawsuit against Irvine’s Kia Motors America Inc.
Last month, Kia, part of South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co., prevailed in a trial over seatbelts in its 2001 and 2002 Sephia and Spectra cars.
The outcome was a big win for Kia, which settled two class action suits in 2005. The seatbelt case could have cost Kia about $2.5 million in damages, according to Mark Goldzweig, Kia’s in-house lawyer.
“Our goal was to send a clear message that we will try class action cases,” he said. “If we had lost, our damages could’ve been very large. But we did the right thing.”
The suit, which was filed in 2004 by Johnette Alexander and San Diego’s Rosner & Mansfield LLP, charged that seatbelts in the cars were defective because they didn’t fit large people.
None of the Kia owners in the lawsuit were injured by the seatbelts.
The suit, representing some 12,000 people, sought damages and lawyers’ fees. It also wanted Kia to make longer seatbelts or provide seatbelt extenders.
Hal Rosner of Rosner & Mansfield said it’s unlikely the plaintiff will appeal.
An Orange County Superior Court jury found that Kia’s seatbelts are regulated by the federal government’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and meet or exceed government standards.
“The government has looked at whether cars should have seatbelts that fit everybody,” Goldzweig said. “But the fact is one size doesn’t fit all. People need to buy the vehicles that fit their needs and sizes.”
Kia’s win marks the first time the automaker has been able to avoid a settlement or payout related to its Sephia model.
In 2005, a Philadelphia jury ordered the automaker to pay $5.6 million in a class action suit where Pennsylvania owners alleged their 1997 to 2000 Sephias had defective brakes.
That same year, Kia settled another class action suit involving California owners who contended the front brakes on their 1997 to 2000 Kia Sephias were defective.
Kia agreed to pay $14 million with a $600 maximum payout per owner in the California suit.
The automaker also paid $2.1 million in lawyers’ fees.
Rosner & Mansfield, which handles auto fraud and lemon law cases, represented the California owners in the brakes suit as well as the seatbelt case.
Kia was worried about becoming a target for class action suits driven by lawyers seeking big settlements and fees, Goldzweig said.
“These cases are often driven by attorney fees and there’s very little value for people that are class members,” he said. “In the end, it just takes away resources from the company and puts it into the pockets of attorneys. These resources could help us make product improvements or better priced cars.”
Goldzweig represented Kia along with James Feeney of Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Dykema Gossett PLLC.
The complaints about Kia’s seatbelts were subjective, which helped Kia win the case, according to Feeney.
“It’s not Kia’s responsibility to make sure that every person can fit into its seatbelts. It’s just not possible,” he said.
