— Honda battery drain problems caused a lawsuit in July 2021 which was completely dismissed in September 2022.
The Honda battery drain lawsuit alleges the batteries drain while the 2016-2019 Honda Accords and 2017-2019 Honda CR-Vs are shut off.
Though the Honda class action lawsuit was dismissed in 2022, the judge ruled the plaintiffs could change and refile their lawsuit. This time the judge has allowed certain claims to move forward in court.
Known as parasitic drain, Honda electrical components allegedly cause the batteries to drain while the vehicles are parked and shut off.
In dismissing the class action in 2022, the judge ruled the plaintiffs failed to identify the electrical components that allegedly caused parasitic battery draining.
Further, in arguing for dismissal of the first battery drain lawsuit, Honda noted the very owners who filed the class action didn't even allege their own vehicles suffered from any of the alleged battery problems described in the battery drain lawsuit.
The plaintiffs assert the Honda Accord and CR-V vehicles have defects that affect the fast controller area network (F-CAN), “which is a subnetwork of the vehicles’ main CAN system.”
The battery drain lawsuit alleges the F-CAN draws as much as 350mA even when the vehicle is off, more than seven times the amount it should be drawing.
Honda Battery Drain Lawsuit to Proceed
According to Judge Haywood S. Gilliam, Jr., this time the plaintiffs "have adequately pled a defect."
The judge says the plaintiff's claims can be grouped into two basic categories: fraud claims and those based on breach of warranty.
Judge Haywood ruled the plaintiffs, "have adequately pled statutory fraud claims but have failed to adequately plead their concealment or omission claims sounding in fraud."
The judge also found breach of express warranty claims can continue, but only for those plaintiffs "who allege that they experienced problems with their vehicles in connection with this alleged defect before the expiration of the warranty."
However, Judge Haywood ruled in favor of Honda when he dismissed breach of implied warranty claims.
The named plaintiffs are: Ronald Raynaldo, Richard Barrie, Fernanda Nunes Ferreira, George Jones, Robert Lizzul, Mithcell Bryon Pazanki, Harry Rapp, Dennis Woods, Dayane Tessinari, Brendan Sanger and Jason Casey.
The Honda battery drain lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California: Ronald Raynaldo, et al., v. American Honda Motor Co., Inc.
The plaintiff is represented by Kaplan Fox & Kilsheimer LLP, and Kuzyk Law, LLP.
