COLUMBUS, Ohio (Legal Newsline) – Ohio’s Supreme Court has stopped a class action lawsuit against Mercedes-Benz because the plaintiff was included in the class for a previous settlement and failed to opt out.
Justice Patrick Fischer wrote the July 16 opinion for the court, which agreed with Mercedes-Benz’s argument that Pattiann McAdams’ lawsuit was barred by a 2015 settlement in California federal court. The decision reverses a Tenth District Court of Appeals ruling that McAdams had opted out of the so-called Seifi class settlement, which was reached after McAdams filed her Ohio case.
“The federal court determined which class members were bound by the settlement agreement – it excluded only those class members who had opted out of the class action by following the mandated opt-out procedure and McAdams was not one of those people,” Fischer wrote.
“What is clear in this case is that a court cannot deem a class member, who was not found by the court maintaining the class action to have opted out, and who has not demonstrated a due process violation by being included in the class action, as having adequately opted out of the class action.”
The lawsuits concerned problems with certain M272 engines in automobiles made by Mercedes-Benz. The notice of the proposed settlement in federal court was issued in April 2015, and the settlement was approved in August of that year.
The federal court said all class members had been given a fair opportunity to participate and/or opt out of the settlement when it approved it.
In August 2016, Mercedes-Benz deposed McAdams, who said she was aware of the Seifi class action and that it had been settled. When Mercedes-Benz moved for summary judgment because McAdams never opted out, she argued she had effectively opted out by filing and maintaining her suit.
The trial court ruled against her, but the appeals court gave the case new life until the Supreme Court’s recent ruling.
“For this court to wade into discussing a strict or liberal view of opt-out determinations is unnecessary in this case, as the issue was clearly barred by res judicata,” Fischer wrote.