On July 24, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida denied a motion for class certification for a group of people suing Dometic Corporation over alleged defective refrigerators, then dismissed the lawsuit for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.
Catherine Papasan and others had alleged that Dometic, a gas absorption refrigerator manufacturer, made refrigerators that have “excessive corrosion on the inside of a gas absorption refrigerator’s oiler tubes,” according to the lawsuit. They added that the erosion creates issues like internally flammable ammonia, hydrogen gas and other dangerous chemicals that the plaintiffs say can easily leak and possibly even ignite or, worse, could ruin the refrigerator as a whole.
The court denied the class certification. While it first determined the plaintiffs had proper standing, it added, “The plaintiffs have failed to proffer any evidence that Dometic’s records, including Dometic’s recall efforts, would be useful to identify class members.” While they point to the defendant’s sales and warranty registration numbers, the plaintiffs failed to actually cite the record with data or any other type of evidence with hard numbers, the court ruled.
The plaintiffs also didn’t properly detail how depending on DMV records would help solidify the class numbers as well, the court said.
“Even if plaintiffs could rely on Dometic’s prior recalls, they would need to explain to the court how they are going to use the recall protocol to identify class members,” the ruling stated.
Regarding the self-identification method, the court said the plaintiffs fell short.
The plaintiffs "have not provided the court with any proposals demonstrating how self-identification would work, much less a plan that would be administratively feasible and not otherwise problematic,” the ruling read.
Thecourt denied the motion for class certification and dismissed the case.
U.S. District Judge Robert N. Scola, Jr. ruled on the case.