{"id":101764,"date":"2015-12-09T00:01:36","date_gmt":"2015-12-09T05:01:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=101764"},"modified":"2015-12-08T23:25:52","modified_gmt":"2015-12-09T04:25:52","slug":"california-court-to-hear-vw-diesel-lawsuits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2015\/12\/california-court-to-hear-vw-diesel-lawsuits\/","title":{"rendered":"California Court to Hear VW Diesel Lawsuits"},"content":{"rendered":"
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U.S. District Judge Gerald E. Rosen in Detroit was considered for hearing the now 450-plus consolidated lawsuits that went to San Francisco.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A federal court in California will wind up handling the growing list of lawsuits filed against Volkswagen over its admitted cheating in diesel emissions tests, a multidistrict judicial panel has decided.<\/p>\n

There had been speculation that the legal actions \u2013 now estimated at more than 450 suits \u2013 would be turned over to the same Detroit judge who recently oversaw the bankruptcy of the Motor City. But the panel said it was more appropriate to go to San Francisco because a large number of VW owners and dealers are located there.<\/p>\n

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Legal News!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“We are confident that Judge Breyer will steer this controversy on a prudent and expeditious course,” declared the panel, referring to U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer. The San Francisco-based jurist, it continued, is \u201cthoroughly familiar with the nuances of complex, multidistrict litigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Volkswagen has been embroiled in controversy since mid-September when the U.S. Environmental Agency accused it of using a so-called \u201cdefeat device\u201d to cheat on emissions tests involving 482,000 vehicles equipped with a 2.0-liter turbodiesel. The carmaker quickly acknowledged the problem and confirmed a total of 11 million vehicles sold worldwide were equipped with the suspect software.<\/p>\n

VW also has acknowledged a subsequent allegation by the EPA that it cheated on emissions rules with a larger, 3.0-liter diesel sold in various models under the Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche brands.<\/p>\n

(Justice Dept., VW want to consolidate lawsuits in one court, ideally Detroit. For more, <\/em>Click Here<\/span><\/a>.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The maker has put a stop-sale on all affected products in the U.S., a move that contributed to a large slump in sales by the VW division last month, though Audi and Porsche showed sharp gains.<\/p>\n

The maker faces a potential EPA fine of more than $20 billion for the two diesel scams, and it is under criminal investigation by the U.S. Justice Department, as well as by authorities in Germany. But the biggest financial hit could come from civil litigation, according to various observers. Some analysts have suggested the eventual cost of settling the controversy will cost VW more than $50 billion.<\/p>\n

The German company has been hit by a wide range of lawsuits. Many of them allege that consumers were defrauded, VW not living up to promises that its vehicles were quick, fuel-efficient and clean. Some owners claim the scandal has resulted in loss of trade-in value. Diesels have also sued Volkswagen because of the impact the scandal is having on their businesses.<\/p>\n

The challenge for the judicial panel was to determine if and how these various suits would be consolidated to ease the likely court load, and then to choose where to have the matter brought to trial.<\/p>\n

(<\/em>Click Here<\/span><\/a> for details about VW admitting additional cheating.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

There had been thought Detroit would make sense because, among other things, it would be close to the EPA\u2019s emissions testing labs. But, in the end, the jurists settled on San Francisco because of several potential advantages. For one thing, the decision stated, it is where “most affected vehicles and dealers” are located. About a fifth of the suits so far filed are based in the Golden State.<\/p>\n

The federal court in the Northern District of California was where the first lawsuit against VW was filed. Additionally, the California Air Resources Board, or CARB, is located in the state capital of Sacramento, an hour away. CARB, the panel noted, “played an important initial role in investigating and, ultimately, revealing VW’s use of the defeat devices.”<\/p>\n

The judicial panel did not immediately rule on the fate of several lawsuits that now might not be consolidated into the action facing Judge Breyer \u2013 who is the brother of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. Those include claims covering alleged securities fraud. Another action would allow VW diesel owners to defer payments on their loans.<\/p>\n

(Facing fines, legal bills VW slashes spending. <\/em>Click Here<\/span><\/a> for the story.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Volkswagen last week lined up $21 billion in short-term financing to cover the possible costs associated with the diesel scandal. It has separately set aside $7.1 billion and sharply reduced its capital spending plans as a result of the potential costs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A federal court in California, not Michigan as expected, will handle the expanding list of lawsuits against Volkswagen. For details, go to TheDetroitBureau.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":100430,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[151],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101764"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101764"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=101764"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=101764"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=101764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}