— A Mercedes burl wood settlement is final, but the plaintiffs who sued may not be completely happy about the ending.
The Mercedes-Benz burl walnut wood trim class action lawsuit alleges the wood turns cloudy and fades due to faulty ultraviolet (UV) radiation protection.
The Mercedes-Benz burl walnut settlement includes 2010-2016 E-Class (212) vehicles originally equipped with burl walnut or burred walnut interior trim.
Mercedes-Benz denies the allegations in the burl walnut lawsuit, and the automaker told the judge Mercedes did nothing improper or wrong.
Mercedes Burl Wood Settlement Details
The burl walnut lawsuit settlement provides some customers with partial reimbursements, which you can read about here.
And while the judge granted final approval to the settlement, he did make changes to how much the named plaintiffs will receive from the class action.
Judge Thomas W. Thrash, Jr. says he must deny service awards to the 13 class representatives who are named as plaintiffs.
Courts prior to September 17, 2020, typically approved incentive awards for plaintiffs who filed a class action lawsuit because those customers allegedly acted as class representatives.
But everything changed on September 17, 2020, in a case entitled Johnson v. NPAS Sols. at the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. The court decided, "[a] plaintiff suing on behalf of a class...cannot be paid a salary or be reimbursed for his personal expenses."
The Eleventh Circuit decision was based on two U.S. Supreme Court decisions from the 1800s, (Trustees v. Greenough, and Cent. R.R. & Banking Co. v. Pettus).
Because the appeals court rejected the practice of awarding incentive awards to class representatives, Judge Thrash ruled he could not award the Mercedes burl wood class representatives anything.
"Recently, en banc review by the Eleventh Circuit was denied, albeit with four dissenters. It is also expected that plaintiffs in that case will file a petition to the Supreme Court of the United States to grant a writ of certiorari. As such the Court cannot approve the requested service awards, which are, therefore DENIED WITHOUT PREJUDICE." — Judge Thrash
Although the 13 Mercedes-Benz owners who filed the lawsuit won't receive incentive awards of $5,000 each, the attorneys representing those customers will receive $4,456,987.98 in attorneys' fees and $43,012.02 in expenses.
The Mercedes burl wood lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Atlanta Division: Callen et al. v. Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC et al.
The plaintiffs are represented by Heninger Garrison Davis, LLC, and Rozier Hardt McDonough PLLC.
