— A Ford truck class action lawsuit is heading back to a district court after a visit to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
The Ford truck "death wobble" lawsuit was filed nearly seven years ago for customers nationwide and included 2005-2019 Ford F-250 and F-350 trucks.
Over the years the class action lawsuit has changed. A lot.
The current version includes only 2005-2007 and 2017-2019 Ford F-250 and F-350 trucks purchased from dealerships in these states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Maine, New Mexico, South Carolina and Texas.
Additionally, the "death wobble" lawsuit does not include trucks used for business purposes.
According to the class action, the so-called "death wobble" is really a steering "shimmy" that stops when a driver slows down.
A loose track bar bushing, abnormal wear of the bushing, problems with the ball joints, issues with the steering dampers, control arms, shock absorbers and struts are all alleged causes of the Ford truck "death wobble."
The 13 customers who sued complain Ford Super Duty drivers lose control of their trucks because the steering damping systems are defective.
In 2024 the district court judge certified the shimmy class action lawsuit for the above states, but Ford kept fighting by appealing the class action certification to the Ninth Circuit. This paused the entire case, and it partly paid off for Ford.
Ford argues there is no common defect that manifested at the same time across all the various models and model years.
Based on the appeals court ruling, the case will be sent back to the lower court after the Ninth Circuit affirmed certain aspects of the case and denied other district court rulings about class action certification.
The Ninth Circuit found the plaintiffs need to provide proof of common evidence of the alleged steering defects and "death wobble."
Ford told the Ninth Circuit the lawsuit should not have been certified for any of the involved states because, according to Ford, all the evidence shows the claimed steering shimmy "manifested at different rates from year to year across the platforms encompassed by the certified classes."
"We agree with Ford, and reverse and remand for further analysis. We reverse the certification order and remand for the district court to evaluate whether the variable evidence of shimmy manifestation is fatal to certification of the putative classes." — Ninth Circuit
Another setback for the plaintiffs concerns how Ford allegedly knew the trucks were defective before the very first truck was ever sold. This argument appears in every automotive class action lawsuit and is a claim automakers routinely call absurd.
The "death wobble" lawsuit calls the supposed suspension defects dangerous which make the trucks unfit for their purpose of typical driving.
But if Ford knew of the purported dangerous defects before the trucks were first sold, this necessarily means the automaker knew family members, employees and every customer was in danger simply because Ford chose not to repair the steering dampers before selling the trucks.
This is why automakers call the "presale knowledge" argument nonsense, but judges routinely believe that argument, including the district court judge in this "death wobble" class action. However, the appeals court saw things differently.
The Ninth Circuit found the lower court judge should not have allowed simple general evidence to support the plaintiffs' claim that Ford had presale knowledge of the supposed suspension defects.
According to the appeals court, truck owners who provided details of possible problems after the trucks were sold do not adequately allege Ford knew of possible problems before the trucks were first sold.
The Ford steering shimmy lawsuit will head back to the district court for the judge to reconsider the case.
The Ford truck "death wobble" class action lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California: Lessin, et al., v. Ford Motor Company, et al.
The plaintiff is represented by McCune Law Group, and Sohn & Associates.
