Faegre Drinker Litigation Team Secures Appeal Victory to Break Class Certification in Nissan Case

A litigation team made up of the firm’s class action and appellate teams persuaded the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati to vacate class certification in an appeal for Nissan arising from a case involving automatic emergency braking systems. 

In March 2023, a Tennessee federal judge certified 10 statewide classes of owners and lessees of certain Nissan vehicles based on allegations that the cars’ automatic braking systems sometimes activated unnecessarily. On November 22, 2024, the three-judge federal appellate panel for the Sixth Circuit reversed the certification order, holding that the district court had failed to conduct the required rigorous analysis of the certification issues. In particular, the district court had failed to consider Nissan’s evidence that two software upgrades had mitigated rare but unnecessary activations. As a result, many of the questions presented were not, in fact, common to the entire class. The district court had also failed to address the substantive requirements of the state law claims and their impact on whether the claims could be resolved on a common basis. Finally, the panel held, consistent with majority of other Circuits, that the district court should have considered Rule 702 challenges to expert testimony submitted in support of class certification.  

The ruling is significant because, in granting permission to appeal, the Sixth Circuit noted that “automotive defect cases are increasingly common” and review of the case was likely to be relevant to other class actions as well.”

The Faegre Drinker team was led by Paul Cauley, co-leader of the firm’s class action team and Aaron Van Oort, co-leader of the firm’s appellate team, who argued the case before the Sixth Circuit. Vance Wittie and John Rockenbach were instrumental, and Bruce Jones, Mark Taticchi and Anderson Tuggle provided valuable contributions.

The significant ruling has been widely covered by Law360, Bloomberg Law, MSN and Reuters. The case was featured in The Am Law Litigation Daily’s “Litigator of the Week” round up.