potential good news from Quebec hearing
this was copied from the Dieselgate, The Canadian Edition thread
So this summary from someone on the Facebook group of what happened in court in Quebec just came in (its a long post): take from it what you will.
Quebec (Montreal) Court Observations:
- Court location was moved three times, court security was tight, full body scan
- Began at 10 a.m., instead of its usual 9:30. Court was carried out in French, translators and interpreters were not made available by the court. Judge didn't seem to care if you couldn't understand French initially.
- Plaintiff counsel began, class member plaintiff wasn't there, Sabrina Lombardi was present in court.
- Plaintiff counsel spoke for nearly 2 1/2 hours, first break mid-way through
- Plaintiff counsel revealed the night previous, he received a 'miraculous' email that somehow after all this time since the US settlement, that the US VINs registered in Canada between September 2015 and April 2017 would be considered as part of this settlement. Probably seeing as there were numerous objections filed that called into questions VIN ownership from the US or Canadian vehicles in the US.
- Plaintiff counsel rejected Bosch settlement that happened in the US
- Plaintiff counsel indicated Very Clean, Clean, Average, Rough and Very Rough categories to explain the CBB valuations. The judge was confused, required clarification, as that was based on US methodology, everyone here knows they have Wholesale - Low, Wholesale High, Retail and MSRP.
- Valuations expert wasn't present in court
- Basically the Plaintiff counsel tried to fight every objection to have this settlement approved on behalf of the defence counsel. There were numerous other objections, all paper based, that they submitted, but did nothing to fight on behalf of the absent class members. He even introduced case law on behalf of breast implant class members who previously were awarded monies, the fact that they got something for their troubles, was better than nothing type of argument (weak).
- Broke for lunch at 12:30, for an hour and a half, because defence counsel couldn't have presented their case in the allotted time.
- Resumed at 2:00, defence counsel spoke for 13 minutes, because his job was already done for him by the Plaintiff's counsel, to argue in favor of approving the settlement. The Toronto lawyer next week was seated with the defence counsel, although she didn't speak in front of the judge. She did complain that lunch was an hour and a half, because in Toronto, it's different. The Plaintiff's counsel corrected her, when they indicated that Montreal normally starts at 9:30, where Toronto usually starts at 10:00 for class motions.
- First objections were heard, Filipe Brault (sp) is the one primarily responsible for getting all the US VINs entered into record, good on him, I asked if he was apart of this facebook group, he is not. Good guy though. He was interviewed by the Montreal Journal reporter outside during the break.
- A few more objections were read, Plaintiff counsel had the opportunity to respond, then defence counsel. Again in collusion of one another.
- So the CBB faulty vehicle estimator was never apart of the initial agreement, it was done simply as convenience for the class members.
- The FAQs released 9 days prior to the objection/opt out deadline was more than sufficient time, and the original long notice was the only FAQs that we were entitled to.
- The difference between Western and Eastern Canada varies because of the salt that is used more in the East, as compared to beautiful BC and Alberta where they don't use salt and harsh conditions. Although Plaintiff's counsel did not respond to NWT and Nunavut being apart of the equation/valuation.
- 2015 owners should not fear in having their vehicles recalled up until April 28 because even if they have the first stage of the fix, they would be eligible for the buyback (I'd be more than happy for a 2015 owner to clarify this statement made by counsel, as to their own interpretation)
- Counsel then conferred, another break, they got together again, worked out the terms of the new verbiage that is now apart of the revised settlement to include all those Canadian members who had their US vehicle registered in their Canadian province between September 2015 and I believe June 2017.
- Plaintiff's counsel thanked everyone who appeared, submitted their objection and gave a nice speech of how they appeared on behalf of the class, fighting for the class and the best interest of all the class to receive some wholesale monetary award, that compiled with the damages payment, is 100% above and beyond the retail value of every vehicle as of September 2015.
***Update**** If you have an objection, try to appear in person, or at least have someone designated appointed on your behalf to argue on March 31st in front of the Toronto Judge. It goes a lot further, clearly the Plaintiff's counsel will not argue on your behalf, they actually tried to dispel all of the objections, even indicating that the low number of objections does not constitute this being rejected at all. They were then handed to the Judge, they were not read in court, she then left court at 4:30. No settlement was reached as indicated, and there is an update that Defence Counsel must provide to her within a week's time.