The law firm of Sheldon J. Schlesinger, P.A. has filed a class action suit against Lexus U.S.A. Inc., Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc., and others, claiming that Lexus failed to correct problems with the front passenger air bag system in thousands of 2007 Lexus ES350 automobiles.
The attorney who filed the lawsuit, Scott P. Schlesinger, said today he filed the suit in Broward County Circuit Court last week on behalf of Arnold Rosen of Boca Raton and a number of other Lexus ES350 owners. The suit claims that the sensor under the front passenger seat of all ES350s does not work properly in some situations, and may fail to trigger the right front airbag in the event of a collision.
The suit further alleges that Lexus has refused to correct the problem. “The defendants have indicated that they do not have a solution for the defect,” the suit said.
“By equipping their vehicles with the defective airbag occupant classification sensor systems, defendants have breached their expressed and implied warranties in violation of Florida law,” Schlesinger said in his suit. “The defendants continue to sell and lease the defective vehicles despite their awareness of the defect and the dangers posed by that defect.”
Involved are “tens of thousands of vehicles manufactured by the defendants, which are leased and sold throughout Florida and come equipped with dangerous and defective airbag systems,” the suit claims.
At issue is the ES350’s airbag system, and specifically the systems’ airbag occupant classification sensor.
“All of the defective vehicles are equipped with a weight sensor system beneath the front passenger seat,” according to the suit. “The purpose of the sensor is to gauge the weight of the person in that seat.”
When the sensor detects the presence of a passenger, the suit claims, it arms the passenger airbag. But the suit alleges the ES350’s sensors are defective and often do not detect the presence of a passenger.
Arnold Rosen, the suit’s class representative, leases two of the 2007 ES350s, and both contain airbag systems that do not register the presence of passengers, according to the suit. At one point, Rosen’s Lexus dealer took one of his cars in for service and inspection, and gave him another ES350 to drive. That car, too, had an airbag system that failed to recognize the presence of right front passengers.
The suit also claims that ES350 owners from around the country have complained about the airbag system, and some of them have filed complaints with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. A number of those complaints were included as exhibits in the suit.
The suit wants Lexus to re-call and re-purchase the ES350s at their full cost; wants full refunds for those people who have leased their vehicles; wants the cars re-fitted with functioning airbag systems; and also asked for compensatory damages for all costs and loss of value.
Besides Lexus and Toyota, defendants include J.M. Auto Inc., doing business as J.M. Lexus; Southeast Toyota Distributors LLC; and J.M. Family Enterprises.
