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Hyundai has misplaced its bid to cease an Alberta man’s class-action lawsuit over damaged sunroofs from going to trial.
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The unique class motion lawsuit, filed by Robert Engen in July 2018, alleged that panoramic sunroofs put in in six fashions of Hyundai automobiles have been faulty as a result of they may spontaneously break as he skilled.
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Now-retired Affiliate Chief Justice John Rooke, after listening to testimony from Hyundai and Engen, licensed the category motion in September 2021.
Hyundai Auto Canada’s attraction sought to have the certification tossed, elevating a number of arguments, most notably that there isn’t a proof of a “common defect” cited within the lawsuit.
A 3-member Alberta Courtroom of Attraction panel dominated in a written ruling issued Monday that key components of the certification ought to proceed.
Engen stated he was driving his 2013 Santa Fe in August 2016 when the automobile’s sunroof broke “with out warning and with none indication that any object had made prior contact with it.”
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Shards of glass “poured” into the back and front seats, the declare states, with Engen’s spouse struggling “cuts and abrasions throughout her physique”.
In his declare, which covers six Hyundai fashions manufactured between 2011 and 2018, Engen listed 36 different Canadians who stated their Hyundai sunroofs broke spontaneously.
“There was a adequate evidentiary foundation to conclude not solely that any defect within the sunroofs can be class-wide, but additionally {that a} defect truly existed,” the appeals court docket resolution stated.
“The negligence declare might proceed to trial, the place the query of how greatest to treatment any harmful defect present within the sunroofs could also be correctly decided on a whole evidentiary document.”
The panel stated claims alleging negligent misrepresentation, breach of the Competitors Act and breach of shopper safety laws didn’t meet the brink for sophistication motion.
