Houston, TXCory Fein is an attorney at Caddell & Chapman - whose company motto is aggressive, creative, results. He actively applies those principles against all obstacles in commercial litigation, products liability and class action litigation. The firm, which he joined in 2001, has represented plaintiffs in automotive manufacturing, and consumers in class action litigation against insurance and credit card companies involving defective products and deceptive business practices.
Their motivation for taking on the Ford Motor Company's ongoing recalls mirrors the general philosophy of class action: when vehicle owners were notified by Ford to have their cruise control feature deactivated at the risk of provoking serious fire and
accidents, Ford then told the long line of customers forced to wait for the parts that they would provide replacements whenever and if they wanted to. As Mr. Fein and his clients discovered, Ford had not planned to compensate in any way for the inconvenience. Mr. Fein found their lack of urgency troubling, especially in the face of the growing number of complaints of lengthy wait time and fires.
The recall concerns cars, trucks, vans, SUVs and motorhomes manufactured between 1992-2004.
Lawyers and Settlements (LAS): Can you give us a background on the Ford Recall?
Cory Fein (CF): Ford has issued a recall concerning the cruise control in about ten million vehicles by now. In the past several years they've done about six or seven recalls. What happened was that Ford has identified certain models and years of vehicles that have a problematic speed control deactivation switch when operating on cruise control. When the driver hits the brakes the switch that disables the cruise control can cause a fire because of a defect in the manufacturing or where it's placed in the engine, even when its not running. [The switch sits right above the flammable reservoirs of brake fluid].
LAS: What kind of reports are you receiving?
CF: We've had more than 100 reports of vehicles parked in the driveway or in the garage and spontaneously bursting into flames. Sometimes they catch the garage or the house on fire.
LAS: What has been Ford's reaction?
CF: They have recognized this danger and have implemented the recall but they're doing them a little at a time; then they get reports of additional fires and it's evident the design of the new switches in new vehicles are very similar to the ones in the recalled vehicles. So they're expanding the recall to include additional types of vehicles.
LAS: What is Ford telling its customers?
CF: It's telling them to bring their Fords down to their dealership and they'll replace the defective switch with a redesigned switch that has no design danger.
LAS: Is that working for customers?
CF: Not at all. After the recall spread wider and wider, not too surprisingly there's not enough replacement switches for everyone who needs one now. So they said: come in, we'll disconnect your speed control deactivation switch so there's no fire danger - and we'll let you know when a part becomes available.
In the meantime there's no cruise control on the car.
LAS: Are customers coping?
CF: Well, my clients are very inconvenienced. They paid for a car with cruise control and now they're spending months without that feature. Some drive long distances; they need it.
LAS: Has there been any change in the status of those parts?
CF: It's gotten worse. Whereas people were being told at first to come back soon, that then changed to come back in a few months, now they're finally saying they don't know when they'll have them ready.
We've been getting calls from people around the country about the hardship they're having without the feature. They've been falsely lead.
LAS: How is Ford addressing claims for compensation?
CF: They are claiming they shouldn't have to pay people for being without cruise control. Their justification is that these vehicles must not be under warranty anymore. They've done the recall so there's no more fire danger and now they can take as long as they want to replace the switches and people shouldn't be able to recover for that.
LAS: How will your firm assist those waiting?
CF: The part of the lawsuit we are addressing is for people who want to be compensated for their vehicle being recalled because of the faulty cruise control, have had the switch disconnected and the time they've had to do without it. We want to talk to them also about what they're hearing from their dealership.
LAS: How complex is the case?
CF: To prosecute correctly, it helps if you can take a deposition of several Ford engineers to find out what is wrong, that this is a defect, not just a chance occurrence. And it helps the case if you can find out that Ford has known about the defect for a long time. Also that Ford issued recalls in the past and didn't recall all the vehicles with defective switches.
So there are a lot of efficiencies that can be gained by getting involved in a multi-district litigation where you can do discover on some general topics about the defects and Ford's prior knowledge. Whereas if everyone had to handle these cases one by one, it would be a lot harder to get the evidence you need and to do it efficiently in a cost-effective way.
As far as class actions go, a company shouldn't be allowed to engage in any type of practice, like manufacturing defective product, where it can escape liability because the damages are relatively small. It's real damage that people have to be without that cruise control and there has to be some sort of compensation.
Cory Fein is an honors graduate of the University of Texas Law School and is licensed to practice before the United States Supreme Court in Texas and California and district courts in several states. Mr. Fein has been deemed 'A Texas Rising Star' by Texas Monthly in 2004, 2005 and 2007. He joined Caddell & Chapman in 2001.