Defying expectations, the U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear arguments that it should dismantle two class actions over allegedly defective Whirlpool Corp. washing machines. The cert denial is a big win for plaintiffs lawyers and consumer advocates, who have found themselves in the high court’s crosshairs for years now.
The cases—Whirlpool Corp v. Glazer and Sears and Roebuck & Co. v. Butler—involve claims that Whirpool sold washing machines with a latent design defect that leads to a smelly buildup of mold (some of the machines were sold through Sears’ Kenmore brand). Whirlpool and Sears sought to overturn rulings that certified the cases as class actions, arguing that the vast majority of class members never complained about mold, so their claims aren’t amenable to classwide resolution. Pro-business groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce wrote amicus briefs siding with the manufacturers. The head of the Business Roundtable wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that cases like these could choke industry by “turning a single customer complaint into grounds for a lawsuit on behalf of millions of buyers.”
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