Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Perfectlap
If a high profile enough attorney went after Porsche for this they could force some manner of "master settlement agreement" like the kind that occurred in the Tobacco industry. Everyone said that could never happen in a million years and sure enough Tobacco coughed up $50 billion. Granted bigger numbers were at stake so they thought the case was well worth the fight but still an extraordinary uphill battle since Tobacco had never in its history settled for even a dime. This IMS issue would be a heck of a lot easier.
In the end you don't really need to win the case just create enough bad press that the higher ups decide at a time of low auto sales fighting it would cost them more than addressing the problem on a very small number of cars when you compare Porsche to other auto makers. Also, settlements aren't just limited to cash payouts, they can take any number of forms. Porsche could be forced to provide service and parts instead of paying out cash damages (or sub this work out to indy shops to cut costs). Right now lawyers are starving for work, this being the first time maybe ever that big firms have had to layoff attorneys. Partners are having to take cases they never in a million years thought they would need to take.
If I were a deep-pocketed lawyer fresh off the heels of a big recovery I would definitely think about running an ad in Excellence to go fishing for a class. I'm sure there's a few lawyers out there who own a Porsche or two and would find this case intriguing.
|
Agreed.
There are such things as Rules of Discovery associated with civil suits. Assuming a court was presented with sufficient evidence that a significant enough number of Porsche owners are having the exact same kind of catastrophic engine failure, I could definitely see a judge requiring the company to come forth with pertinent documentation on the matter. It could take a long time, granted. Porsche no doubt has some highly talented lawyers working for them.
There are warranties beyond what’s in writing. Bottom line would be whether a relatively expensive automobile that only runs for a few tens of thousands of miles before dying an ugly death, mechanically speaking, meets the standard of an implied warranty of merchantability that a car company should be held to. With Japanese cars running hundreds of thousands of miles without enormously expensive failures occurring, I suspect a good lawyer could make the case that it does not.