— An appeals court has agreed with a district court ruling which dismissed a Mazda water pump class action lawsuit.
Going on six years in court, the Mazda water pump lawsuit alleges the pumps fail in 2008-2015 Mazda CX-9 and 2009-2013 Mazda6 vehicles.
The alleged water pump problems cause coolant to leak which destroys the Mazda MZI Cyclone engines.
The 14 Mazda customers who filed the water pump class action lawsuit assert CX-9 and Mazda6 owners can easily spend thousands of dollars to repair problems the automaker has allegedly long known about.
The plaintiffs claim the Mazda water pumps cause failures of the Mazda engines which should allegedly last 300,000 miles.
Mazda Water Pump Class Action Lawsuit Dismissed
The lawsuit began as a nationwide class action, but the judge certified only certain classes of customers for certain states, then the district court judge decertified the classes of customers and dismissed the entire case.
The judge found numerous problems with the "evidence" presented by the Mazda owners. Although the plaintiffs contend the Mazda MZI Cyclone engines should last 300,000 miles, their own expert said the engines may last up to 150,000 miles.
The plaintiffs also argued Mazda's expert was wrong but couldn't show how the expert was wrong.
Mazda's expert testified the water pump failure rate for the Mazda6 is less than 2% and the pump failure rate for the CX-9 is less than 3%.
The Mazda water pump class action lawsuit was dismissed after the judge found water pump failures are "rare" and the "vast majority of the Class Vehicles’ water pumps do not fail prematurely—i.e., before they reach 120,000–150,000 miles."
Mazda Water Pump Class Action Lawsuit Appeal
The plaintiffs appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit which has now agreed with the district court opinion.
The appeals court found the district court was correct when it determined the plaintiff's expert failed to provide sufficient facts and data to “support . . . every necessary link” in his theory.
The expert said the elastomer bellows in the Mazda vehicles were subject to “accelerated degradation” but did so without presenting any comparative evidence of typical degradation rates.
The Ninth Circuit also agreed with the district court which determined the expert “observation that the bellows that he examined showed degradation” did not establish that this degradation was the cause, as opposed to the effect, of the water pump failure.
The district court also concluded the four failed water pumps on which the expert relied were not enough to support his “root cause” theory of a defect.
The appeals court further agreed with the district court judge who found the expert "did not satisfactorily explain or support the methodology he employed, thereby failing to satisfy FRE 702, which 'screen[s] the jury from unreliable nonsense opinions.'”
After nearly six years in court, there is allegedly no evidence of defective Mazda water pumps.
"Given the absence of evidence of a defect, there is no common claim to be pursued by classes of Plaintiffs. Accordingly, the district court did not abuse its discretion when it decertified the classes. Plaintiffs could not prevail on their claims, which are based upon the assertion that Defendants’ vehicles contained defective water pumps." — Ninth Circuit
The Mazda water pump class action lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California: Sonneveldt, et al. v. Mazda Motor of America, Inc., et al.
The plaintiffs are represented by Kiesel Law, Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd, The Miller Law Firm, Keil & Goodson, and the Edwards Firm.
Read about previous Mazda water pump lawsuit court actions:
