Chamberlin

BACKGROUND

Plaintiffs Susan Chamberlan and Henry Fok (“Class Plain- tiffs”) filed a class action lawsuit in state court against Ford Motor Company (“Ford”) and several John Does, alleging that Ford knowingly manufactured, sold, and distributed auto- mobiles containing a defective engine part, in violation of the California Consumers Legal Remedies Act (“CLRA”), Cali- fornia Civil Code § 1750, et seq.1 The action was removed to 1 The CLRA makes illegal various specified “unfair methods of compe- tition and unfair or deceptive acts or practices undertaken by any person CHAMBERLAN v. FORD MOTOR CO. 3867 federal court and the district court certified a plaintiff class of Ford automobile owners.

The engine parts at issue are plastic intake manifolds that Ford used in some, but not all, of its automobiles. The mani- fold distributes air to the engine’s cylinders, where the air mixes with fuel and ignites to power the engine. The manifold includes water crossover tubes that distribute coolant from one side of the engine to the other, and then to the radiator. Plastic manifolds, particularly the plastic water crossover component, are allegedly more likely to…