Harkey v. General Electric Company

Plaintiffs brought this suit against GE on behalf of themselves and all other purchasers of certain GE microwave ovens (model numbers JEB1095, ZMC1090 and ZMC1095) that are defectively designed and/or manufactured such that the glass on the doors to these microwave ovens will shatter.  On April 30, 2015 the Court denied Defendant’s motion to dismiss the case in substantial part, and Plaintiffs filed a motion to certify the class on April 1, 2016.

On March 7, 2017, the Court granted Plaintiffs’ Motion to Certify in part, and certified a “liability only class” under Federal Rule 23(c)(4), with one subclass for Texas consumers and another for consumers in Alaska, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia.  The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit declined Defendants’ request for an immediate appeal of the District Court’s ruling, and the parties continued litigating the claims of the certified class.

On December 5, 2019, Plaintiffs filed a Motion for Preliminary Approval of a Class Action Settlement, which the Court granted on January 15, 2020. On July 16, 2020, a Final Approval Hearing was held on Plaintiffs’ Motion for Certification of the Settlement Class and the Court gave final approval on July 27, 2020.