Laurens v. Volvo Cars of North America, LLC

Dist. Ct. erred in dismissing for lack of standing plaintiffs-husband and wife’s class action seeking for themselves and others full refunds, as well as cost of charging station paid for defendant’s Volvo electric car that plaintiffs claimed did not operate as advertised, where Dist. Ct. had based dismissal on fact that defendant had offered plaintiffs full refund for their electric car prior to plaintiffs filing instant lawsuit. While plaintiff-husband lacked standing to seek refund for car since only wife’s name was on purchase agreement, plaintiff-wife had standing to pursue instant action, where wife had not accepted defendant’s offer to settle case. As such, plaintiff-wife, unlike her husband, had personal injury-in-fact to support her standing to sue to recover cost of electric car. Ct. further noted that unaccepted settlement offer made prior to filing lawsuit is legal nullity, especially where wife could have sought additional remedies, and defendant had no right to preemptively force her to accept instant offer.