BENTON – Lawyers for Belleville lawyer Brian Flynn owe Chrysler and Harman International Industries $179,264.77 for pursuing an injury suit without any injury, U.S. District Judge Staci Yandle ruled on Aug. 25.
“Plaintiff’s jurisdictional claim was always tenuous at best,” she wrote.
She awarded $93,157.96 to Harman and $86,086.81 to Chrysler.
Flynn filed suit in 2015, claiming hackers could control his Jeep through Harman’s Uconnect information and entertainment device.
His lawyers at Armstrong Teasdale in St. Louis relied on a report in Wired magazine that experts hacked a Jeep under controlled conditions.
They proposed a class action with Flynn representing Chrysler buyers in Illinois and other buyers representing Missouri and Michigan.
They alleged risk of physical harm, risk of fear and anxiety, and overpayment.
Former district judge Michael Reagan dismissed risk allegations and allowed an overpayment allegation.
That claim involved about 100,000 vehicles at thousands of dollars per vehicle.
He appointed Armstrong Teasdale lawyers as class counsel along with Christopher Cueto and Lloyd M. Cueto of Belleville.
When Reagan retired, the court clerk randomly assigned Yandle and she dismissed the complaint for lack of standing.
“No hacker has remotely accessed the system, no hacker has seized control of a vehicle’s operations, and no consumer has ever been injured,” she held.
She found plaintiffs didn’t allege that UConnect didn’t work or that they experienced problems related to it.
She found they didn’t allege that they were unwilling to drive their vehicles or that they sold or traded the vehicles at a loss due to alleged defects.
Plaintiffs appealed and Seventh Circuit judges affirmed Yandle this July.
Chief Circuit Judge Diane Sykes found plaintiffs relied on allegations and argument rather than point to evidence of actual injury.
She found no one other than experts successfully hacked a Chrysler vehicle.
Chrysler and Harman moved for taxation of costs and Yandle granted it.
“Plaintiffs failed to cite credible evidence supporting their theory, notwithstanding the amount of discovery including hundreds of thousands of documents, 31 depositions, and ten separate expert reports," she wrote.
She awarded Harman $87,900.44 for deposition transcripts, $4,462.42 for printing and copying, and $795.10 for transcripts of hearings.
She awarded Chrysler $75,548.35 for deposition transcripts, $8,554.91 for printing and copying, $1,495 for serving subpoenas, and $488.55 for transcripts of hearings.
Lawyers at Thompson Coburn in St. Louis represented Fiat Chrysler.
The Milwaukee firm of Foley and Lardner represented Harman International.