U.S. District Judge William L. Campbell, Jr., in the Middle District of Tennessee, Nashville Division, sided with the plaintiff in a lawsuit against Nissan this week. Judge Campbell rejected the automaker’s efforts to toss Kemp v. Nissan North America, Inc. The case is consolidated with a group of parallel claims in In re Nissan North America, Inc. Litigation (M.D. TN) filed by Beasley Allen attorneys Clay Barnett and Mitch Williams. While the court’s ruling this week applied only to Ms. Kemp’s case, it sets the stage for a similar outcome of a motion the company filed to dismiss In re Nissan.
“We are encouraged by Judge Campbell’s ruling in Ms. Kemp’s case as our clients brought parallel claims in In re Nissan,” Barnett said. “Based on the court’s findings in Ms. Kemp’s case, we are confident our clients’ claims will earn clearance to proceed. Our clients believe it is important to hold Nissan accountable for the company’s misrepresentations about the safety of their vehicles and failure to repair the dangerous defects.”
As with Ms. Kemp, plaintiffs in In re Nissan allege that the Forward Emergency Braking System (FEB System) in Nissan and Infiniti vehicles, model year 2015 and newer models, malfunctions. They explain that the defect poses a safety hazard and diminishes their vehicles’ value. One or more defects in the FEB System, also called the Automatic Emergency Braking System, can cause the affected vehicles to brake without warning or need or suffer automatic braking system shutdown.
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