The 3rd Circuit Federal Court of Appeals has rejected a class-action settlement brought about due to allegedly defective sunroofs on a number of Audi and Volkswagen models. Sunroofs on around 3 million vehicles produced from 1997 to 2009 are said to leak. Audi’s A4, A6 and A8 along with Volkswagen’s Golf, Passat, Jetta, New Beetle and Touareg are the impacted models. 

The federal court’s decision is in effect a turning over of a decision made by U.S. Magistrate Judge Patty Shwartz in August 2010 that created a $8 million fund to pay one subgroup of plaintiffs for repairs while requiring a second subgroup to wait. The new decision was made in part based upon the unequal way that the two groups were treated by the earlier settlement. Commenting upon this, Judge D. Brooks Smith wrote for a three-judge panel of the 3rd Circuit. “There is a fundamental intra-class conflict. Representative plaintiffs simply cannot adequately represent the interests of the entire class.”

Stay tuned for more updates on this case here at Auto Loans Delaware.