Vehicle Recall Notices Aren't Necessarily Enough To Certify Class Action, Court Rules

The Court of Queen's Bench for Saskatchewan recently denied certification of a proposed class action alleging negligent design and manufacture of numerous vehicle models spanning several decades.

In Kane v FCA US LLC and FCA Canada Inc., 2022 SKQB 69 the proposed representative plaintiff grounded her allegations in a large number of Canadian vehicle recall notices and a Consent Order entered into with a United States regulatory agency involving similar U.S. vehicle models. The plaintiff did not submit any independent evidence about the nature or quality of the alleged defects but rather sought to piggyback off the mere existence of the recall notices and the U.S. regulatory proceedings.