Dell faces court date over faulty laptops
submitted by markodonoghue on 10 February 2010
Dell has been ordered back to court to face charges that it knowingly sold defective laptops.
A panel of the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco reversed a district court's dismissal of the case against Dell. That dismissal followed the plaintiffs' refusal to comply with a district court order that their claims be arbitrated.
Supposedly Dell violated California laws by selling Inspiron laptops that had inadequate cooling systems, power supplies and motherboards.
They said the defects caused the laptops to shut down without any warnings, fail to boot up, or deteriorate too quickly. The laptops were bought between July 2004 and January 2005, so that's a lot of laptops. It's not clear how many customers were affected by Dell's slip up.
In the ruling, Judge Lyle Strom said the district court abused its discretion in dismissing the case and "the public's interest in a resolution on the merits weighed strongly" in favor of letting the case continue.
The judge also called it "unconscionable" to enforce a provision in customers' sales contracts requiring arbitration, in part because customers may decide not to pursue claims over the $1,200 to $1,500 computers individually.
"Dell has fought very, very hard," said Jonathan Selbin, a New York-based partner at Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP representing the plaintiffs. "We got the courtroom doors open, which was our primary goal."
The appeals court sent the case back to the district court for further proceedings. Dell should have known better than to try and keep quiet about this dealing. It's done the company more harm than good, as people will think twice about buying a laptop from Dell in the future.
Submitted by:
Mark O'Donoghue
Associated Links:
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/355354/dell-faces-court-date-over-faulty-laptops
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