This is a putative consumer class action alleging that Dell violated the Washington Consumer Protection Act by designing, manufacturing, and selling defective laptop computers. The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington enforced the class action ban and New York choice-of-law clause in Dell’s consumer contract, and we appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The Ninth Circuit has remanded for reconsideration in light of McKee.
Public Justice’s Leslie Bailey and Paul Bland are lead counsel. Our co-counsel is Beth Terrell of Terrell Marshall & Daudt LLC in Seattle, WA.
Briefs and Documents for the Carideo Case
U.S. District Court, Western District of Washington (Case No. C06-1772 JLR):
Plaintiffs' Supplement to Rule 60(B) Motion Regarding the National Arbitration Forum (Aug. 24, 2009). This brief argues that in light of the National Arbitration Forum's withdrawal from consumer arbitrations as of July 25, 2009, Dell's arbitration clause -- which designates NAF as the "exclusive" forum -- is unenforceable in its entirety. For more information on the end of NAF consumer arbitrations, click here.
Decision granting Plaintiffs' Motion for Relief from Order Compelling Arbitration (October 26, 2009). After originally granting Dell's motion to compel individual arbitration and enforcing Dell's Texas choice-of-law clause, upon remand from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in light of McKee v. AT&T, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington granted Plaintiffs' Motion for Relief under Fed. R. Civ. P. 60(b) and held that because Dell had selected the NAF as its exclusive arbitral forum, the withdrawal of the NAF from consumer arbitrations rendered Dell's arbitration clause -- including its class action ban -- unenforceable in its entirety. The court also noted that since its original decision enforcing Dell's class action ban, a range of courts applying Washington law had struck down a large number of class action bans as exculpatory in factually diverse cases.