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A General Motors 8L45 and 8L90 transmission class action lawsuit that had been certified for about 800,000 vehicle owners in 26 states has been decertified by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
The GM class action lawsuit involves 8L45 and 8L90 automatic transmissions in these vehicles.
- 2015-2019 Chevrolet Silverado
- 2017-2019 Chevrolet Colorado
- 2015-2019 Chevrolet Corvette
- 2016-2019 Chevrolet Camaro
- 2015-2017 Cadillac Escalade and Escalade ESV
- 2016-2019 Cadillac CTS
- 2016-2018 Cadillac CT6
- 2015-2019 GMC Sierra
- 2015-2017 GMC Yukon and Yukon XL
- 2017-2019 GMC Canyon
Common sense dictates if vehicles are equipped with defective transmissions in 26 states, they would be defective nationwide. But that’s not how class actions work, and the U.S. legal system typically has nothing to do with common sense.
In the case of General Motors and its allegedly defective transmissions, the class action began for customers nationwide but was finally certified for vehicle owners in these 26 states:
Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin.
The 900-page GM transmission class action lawsuit was consolidated from these class actions:
The district court certified the 26 state-wide subclasses with a total of 33 named plaintiffs and 59 state-law claims on behalf of about 800,000 General Motors customers.
GM has always argued a large majority of vehicle owners never had any transmission problems, and even among those who do allege problems, those owners describe different defects in different vehicle models with different transmissions.
According to GM, placing all those customers under the covering of one class action lawsuit will make the Sixth Circuit a “magnet for class-action lawsuits.“
The class action had been certified for the 26 states, but not based on the question if a vehicle owner had transmission problems. Instead, customers who didn’t have transmission problems still argued they paid too much for their vehicles. That accusation was enough to keep the class action alive and moving forward.
The majority (9-7) of the Sixth Circuit found there are too many differences in vehicles, complaints and transmissions to continue as-is.
“Because the subclasses do not meet the rigorous requirements for handling all of these cases in one district court, whether as one case or 26 cases, we vacate the class-certification order. We vacate and remand for the district court to conduct an element-by-element analysis that assesses how each question is common by fitting it into each claim.” — Sixth Circuit
The GM transmission class action lawsuit will now be sent back to the district court for review based on the appeals court ruling.
Are General Motors 8L45 and 8L90 transmissions defective? Read the 112-page appeals court answer.
The GM transmission class action lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan (Detroit): Speerly, et al., v. General Motors LLC.
The plaintiffs are represented by The Miller Law Firm, P.C., Cohen Milstein Sellers Toll PLLC, Gordon & Partners, Kessler Topaz Meltzer Check LLP, Capstone Law APC, and Berger Montague PC.