Alger v. FCA US LLC

Filing 158

ORDER DIRECTING CLASS NOTICE signed by Senior Judge Morrison C. England, Jr on 8/10/20. (Kaminski, H)

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1 William A. Kershaw, State Bar No. 057846 Stuart C. Talley, State Bar No. 180374 2 Ian J. Barlow, State Bar No. 262213 KERSHAW, COOK & TALLEY PC 3 401 Watt Avenue Sacramento, California 95864 4 Telephone: (916) 779-7000 Facsimile: (916) 721-2501 5 Email: bill@kctlegal.com Email: stuart@kctlegal.com 6 Email: ian@kctlegal.com 7 Mark P. Chalos (pro hac vice) Kenneth S. Byrd (pro hac vice) 8 Andrew R. Kaufman (pro hac vice) Madeline M. Gomez (pro hac vice) 9 LIEFF CABRASER HEIMANN & BERNSTEIN, LLP 222 Second Avenue South, Suite 1640 10 Nashville, Tennessee 37201 Telephone: (615) 313-9000 11 Facsimile: (615) 313-9965 Email: mchalos@lchb.com 12 Email: kbyrd@lchb.com Email: akaufman@lchb.com 13 Email: mgomez@lchb.com 14 Attorneys for Plaintiff and the Class 15 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 16 EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 17 18 SHAWN ALGER as an individual and on behalf of all others similarly situated, 19 Plaintiff, 20 21 Case No. 2:18-cv-00360-MCE-EFB ORDER DIRECTING CLASS NOTICE vs. Date: June 25, 2020 Time: 2:00 p.m. 22 FCA US LLC f/k/a CHRYSLER GROUP LLC, a Delaware Corporation, and DOES 23 1 through 100, inclusive, 24 Judge: Hon. Morrison C. England, Jr. Courtroom: 7 Defendants. 25 26 27 28 1 ORDER DIRECTING CLASS NOTICE CASE NO. 2:18-CV-00360-MCE-EFB 1 Before the Court is Plaintiff’s Motion for Approval of Class Notice Plan. 2 On February 18, 2020, this Court certified a Class under Rule 23(b)(3) including “all 3 persons in California who currently own or lease, or who have owned or leased, any Class 4 Vehicle manufactured by Chrysler or any of its subsidiaries or affiliates that is equipped with an 5 Automatic Head Restraint (“AHR”) system” and a California CLRA Subclass consisting of “all 6 members of the Class who are ‘consumers’ within the meaning of California Civ. Code § 7 1761(d),” and appointed Plaintiff’s counsel as Class Counsel. Having reviewed Plaintiff’s 8 Motion and the papers submitted in support of his Notice Plan, and the Opposition and 9 supporting documentation submitted by FCA US; 10 11 IT IS HEREBY ORDERED: 1. The Court approves as to form and content the proposed postcard notice, long- 12 form notice, and publication notice, attached as Exhibit B to FCA US’s June 11, 2020 13 Opposition. 14 2. The Court appoints ILYM Group, Inc. as Notice Administrator. 15 3. The Court directs that within 10 days, Defendant will provide to Class Counsel 16 and the Notice Administrator VIN numbers for Class Vehicles as agreed upon by the Parties. 17 4. The Court directs that within 40 days, the Notice Administrator shall cause notice 18 to be mailed by first-class mail to the names and addresses of all Class Members who can be 19 reasonably identified through the use of VIN numbers provided to Class Counsel and the Notice 20 Administrator by FCA US and through DMV records and who have a current California 21 address. 22 5. Publication notice will be initiated within 40 days. 23 6. The Notice Administrator shall establish and maintain a website as described in 24 paragraph 7 of the ILYM Declaration. The website shall be active no later than 40 days after 25 this Order. Content of the website shall be determined either by agreement of the Parties or, if 26 the Parties are unable to agree, by Court Order. 27 28 2 ORDER DIRECTING CLASS NOTICE CASE NO. 2:18-CV-00360-MCE-EFB 1 7. Class Counsel, working with Notice Administrator, may make non-material 2 modifications, as appropriate, to the forms of notice to make them accurate and complete, and / 3 or for the purposes of effective dissemination to class members (e.g., via email notice, press 4 release, or other media), so long as those modifications substantially comport with the 5 descriptions provided in the ILYM Declaration. Modifications to the forms of notice shall be 6 agreed upon by the Parties or, if the Parties are unable to agree, shall be by Court Order. 7 8. A Class Member may opt out of the Class by mailing an opt-out request as 8 described in paragraph 9 of the ILYM Declaration and Exhibit B to FCA US’s June 11, 2020 9 Opposition. Opt-Out requests must include the Class Member’s name, address, and telephone 10 number, and must be sent to the Notice Administrator post-marked no later than 85 days after 11 this Order. 12 9. The Court finds that the dissemination of the Notice under the terms and in the 13 format provided for in this Order satisfies the requirements of Fed. R. Civ. P. Rule 23(c)(2) for 14 notice in Rule 23(b)(3) class actions and constitutes the best notice practicable under the 15 circumstances. Class counsel will bear the costs of the Notice Plan. 16 IT IS SO ORDERED. 17 Dated: August 10, 2020 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 3 ORDER DIRECTING CLASS NOTICE CASE NO. 2:18-CV-00360-MCE-EFB

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