Imagine being able to sue a car company because the vehicle you bought did not live up to its advertised fuel consumption claims? It sounds rather far-fetched because this would apply to virtually every car ever sold but a Californian Honda Civic Hybrid driver has actually achieved this - albeit in the small claims court.
LA Superior Court Commissioner Douglas Carnahan has just awarded Heather Peters a princely sum of $9867 (R75 500) - much more than the couple hundred dollars that a proposed class-action settlement is offering.
“At a bare minimum Honda was aware ... that by the time Peters bought her car there were problems with its living up to its advertised consumption,” Carnahan wrote in the judgment.
“Big justice comes in small packages”
Peters, a former lawyer, said she is now renewing her legal license after a 10-year lapse so she can represent other Honda owners who have the same problems she did.
“Sometimes big justice comes in small packages. This is a victory for Honda Civic owners everywhere,” she said in an elated tone.
MISLEADING REPRESENTATIONS
Carnahan included in his 26-page decision a long list of misleading representations by Honda that he said Peters had correctly identified. Among them were that the car would use “amazingly little fuel,” “provides plenty of horsepower while still sipping fuel,” and that it would “save plenty of money on fuel with as little as 4.76 l/100km during city driving.”
“Actual performance of plaintiff's vehicle did not live up to these standards,” he said. He noted that when she began receiving much less than the advertised consumption, “she knew she had a problem.”
The commissioner noted that Honda had argued the way a car is driven might affect its fuel consumption. He said that should have been explained in advertising and elsewhere.
Most of the damages Peters was awarded were for extra money spent on fuel, both in the past and future, the cost of the car battery, and the decrease in the car's value because of its problems.
WHY SMALL CLAIMS COURT?
Peters opted out of the class-action lawsuit so she could try to claim a larger damage award for her 2006 Honda Civic's failure to deliver promised consumption.
The proposed class-action settlement would give aggrieved owners the equivalent of between R750 and R1500 each and a R7500 credit toward the purchase of a new car.
In small claims court, there are no attorneys' fees, cases are decided quickly, and individual payments are far greater.
Peters had hoped to inspire a flood of small-claims lawsuits by the other 200 000 people whose Honda Civic hybrids are covered by the proposed settlement.
If all 200,000 owners sued and won in small claims court, she said, it could Honda the equivalent of R15-billion.
But legal experts say it's unlikely that many owners would take the small-claims route because of the time and energy involved in pursuing such lawsuits. -Sapa-AP & IOL