Monday, March 21, 2016
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO
Hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements and fines over unintended acceleration in Toyotas and faulty ignition switches in General Motors’ vehicles provide a glimpse of what consumers and the government might get from Volkswagen for cheating on diesel emissions, legal scholars say.
But the Volkswagen case comes with a wild card that could significantly drive up damages: the company’s admission in September that it intentionally defeated emissions tests and put dirty vehicles on the road.
“It was fraudulent deception, and that makes the case susceptible to a very substantial punitive damage award,” said Robert Rabin, a professor at Stanford Law School and expert in product defect cases.
A more-immediate concern for Volkswagen may be how to bring nearly 600,000 diesel cars polluting U.S. roads into compliance with emissions standards. A federal judge last month gave the company until Thursday to report back on whether it has come up with an engineering fix.
But even with a fix, the company still faces lawsuits by angry Volkswagen owners and the Department of Justice. The owners were duped into buying the vehicles with promises that they were high-performing and fuel efficient yet still environmentally friendly, attorneys for hundreds of owners said in a consolidated complaint filed in February.