EAST ST. LOUIS – Chief U.S. District Judge Nancy Rosenstengel stayed a Gori Law Firm class action against Harley-Davidson on May 11, finding it duplicated an action that the firm’s Alabama associates filed in California.
The Alabama lawyers tried to save actions in four states by dropping those states from the California complaint, but that didn’t sway Rosenstengel.
She wrote that the complaint in her court and that of Ronald Garcia in the Northern District of California “are still fairly duplicitous.”
“While they may no longer include the exact same parties, the plaintiffs in Garcia are identical to the plaintiffs here in all but geographic location, and they present identical allegations against identical defendants,” Rosenstengel wrote.
Attorneys Garrett Owens and Jacob Tubbs of Price Armstrong in Birmingham filed the California action in April 2019, in association with local counsel.
They claimed a defect in optional automatic brakes caused a loss of control in Touring and Touring CVO models from 2008 to 2010.
They proposed a class action for all 50 states.
Harley-Davidson moved to dismiss the complaint, and District Judge Joseph Spero granted partial relief last November.
Spero dismissed an express warranty claim without prejudice and dismissed a misrepresentation claim with leave to amend.
He allowed a warranty claim under federal law, a claim of omission, and a claim of unjust enrichment.
He resolved two implied warranty claims by allowing one and denying the other with prejudice.
In December, attorney Megan Arvola of the Gori firm sued Harley-Davidson at U.S. district court on behalf of Shiloh resident Kenneth Bouas.
Owens and Tubbs requested and received temporary admission to the court.
Other local associates of the Alabama lawyers filed suits in Arizona district court and in state courts of Georgia and New Mexico.
On March 13, Harley-Davidson counsel Dan Ball of Bryan Cave in St. Louis moved to stay the Illinois action.
“Harley-Davidson is the defendant in both cases, and Garcia alleges a nationwide class that encompasses Bouas himself and the entire Illinois class that Bouas purports to represent,” Ball wrote.
On the same date Harley-Davidson filed a similar motion in Arizona.
On March 18, in California, local counsel Mark Todzo of San Francisco moved to amend the complaint and pull Illinois, Arizona, New Mexico, and Georgia out of it.
He argued that the amendment “allows those individuals in those different states to pursue the unique remedies under the laws of those states.”
He filed it on April 16.
On April 27, in Illinois, Arvola opposed a stay in light of the California amendment.
On May 4, Harley-Davidson denied that the amendment overcame its motion.
Rosenstengel agreed a week later, granting a stay pending resolution of Garcia.
She noted Harley-Davidson’s argument that Garcia’s attorneys included lawyers from the firm that represents Bouas.
She noted Harley-Davidson’s argument that the amended complaint indicated an attempt to allow shopping for the most favorable venue.
“The court is also inclined to suspect that the changes to the complaint in Garcia are motivated by a desire to permit multiple suits in multiple venues to proceed,” she wrote.
She wrote that allowing Garcia to proceed would narrow the issues in this case and save time and effort in discovery.