Nickerson v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Corp.
Plaintiff Donald Nickerson brought this putative class action against The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company alleging that Goodyear’s Marathon trailer tires suffer from a design or manufacturing defect that causes premature failure.
Plaintiff purported to allege causes of action for breach of express and implied warranties, violation of the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, the Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act, the California Consumer Legal Remedies Act, and the California Unfair Competition Law, as well as declaratory and injunctive relief, on behalf of all California purchasers of Marathon tires for personal or family use.
The Court granted Goodyear’s motion to dismiss pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), finding that nearly all of plaintiff’s claims were not adequately pled. Among other things, Nickerson failed to properly allege any actionable misrepresentation or omission by Goodyear, or that Goodyear’s warranty, or its marketing of its Marathon tires, formed any part of his decision to purchase his tires.
Further, Nickerson failed to allege entitlement to injunctive relief, because he did not allege any intention of purchasing Marathon tires again in the future. While Nickerson’s implied warranty claim was left standing, and he was granted leave to amend, Nickerson elected to voluntarily dismiss his claims rather than attempt to amend his complaint to cure the defects identified by the Court.