— Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid battery fire lawsuits have been consolidated into one huge class action lawsuit which alleges a recall wasn't good enough to prevent fires.
Judge David M. Lawson describes the consolidated class action lawsuit as a "massive pleading — 1,450-paragraphs spanning more than 430 pages."
The 2017-2018 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid class action was consolidated from 11 separately filed lawsuits centralized in one court following a recall of the minivans.
Three of those Pacifica Hybrid class actions are Huntington v. FCA, Olsen v. FCA, and Gomez v. FCA.
Once owners learned of the recall, they began filing class action lawsuits across the country alleging the recall repairs were not good enough.
The 69 plaintiffs contend either due to defects in their design or problems during the manufacturing process, the large battery plants built into the Pacifica Hybrid powertrains enter a “thermal runaway” condition without warning, resulting in battery fires.
The fires can allegedly occur when the minivans are in motion or while they are parked, leaving owners to park away from anything that could burn.
The February 2022 recall included about 16,700 minivans in the U.S. According to recall documents, Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid recall number Z11 required dealers to update the high voltage battery pack control module software.
In addition, dealers will replace the battery pack assembly if necessary based upon an inspection of the vehicles.
Interim recall letters informing owners of the safety risk were mailed on February 25, 2022, and final owner recall letters were mailed October 6, 2022.
The plaintiffs contend the Pacfica Hybrid battery fire recall consists "merely of a software patch intended to 'monitor' the battery system for conditions that may lead to thermal runaway, and no repair or replacement of the battery pack is offered unless Chrysler deems it 'necessary' after an inspection."
According to the lawsuit, the minivans have lost value because of the battery fire recall.
The consolidated Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid fire class action lawsuit includes these plaintiffs from the following states:
- Arizona (James and Alicia Kappes)
- California (Veronica Bryan, Scott Carney, Sean Clancy, Elias and Michelle Ramirez, Kent Schumann, Alexander Shusta, David Lawrence, Monte and Marie Macias, Rodrigo Nieto Gomez, Robyn Reilman, Scott Olsen)
- Colorado (Andrew Berzanskis, Margaret Wilensky)
- Connecticut (Kelsey and Peter Keefe)
- Florida (John Latacki, Diahann Messeguer, James Quattropani)
- Georgia (John Spruance)
- Idaho (Michael Keeth)
- Illinois (Tim Ferguson, Owen Ryan, Devlin Su, Spence Voss)
- Indiana (Christine Winter)
- Iowa (Tim Banas)
- Kansas (Salyi Vu)
- Kentucky (Christopher Dorn)
- Maryland (Diane and David Davidson, Ruth Hoffman)
- Massachusetts (Alicia and David Maltz, Michael Natale, Javin T. Olson)
- Michigan (Jacob Kitzman, Lauren Huntington)
- Minnesota (Elizabeth Niemioja)
- Missouri (R. Scott Perry)
- Nevada (Scott Lewandowski)
- New Hampshire (Matthew Bergantino, Nicole and Stephen Costa)
- New Jersey (Tracy Whitman Brace)
- North Carolina (Chad Fong)
- Ohio (Jared Gadomski Littleton, Ronan Murphy, Lauren Huntington)
- Oregon (Michael Christie, Clea and Ladd Van Tol)
- Pennsylvania (Joseph Ohodnicki, Erika and James Bagley)
- Rhode Island (Helen Bartek)
- South Carolina (Michael Carbajales-Dale, Rolando Pedroza)
- Tennessee (Rickey Butler)
- Texas (Meagan and Cal Findeiss, Patricia Ransom, Shawn Sheehan)
- Virginia (Richard Golland, Andrew Ventura)
- Washington (Ami Benzur)
- Wisconsin (Tiffany Rodriguez)
The Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid battery fire class action lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan (Southern Division): IN RE: Chrysler Pacifica Fire Recall Products Liability Litigation.
The plaintiffs are represented by Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP, The Miller Law Firm, P.C., Barrack, Rodos & Bacine, Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, LLP, and Casey Gerry Schenk Francavilla Blatt & Penfield LLP.
