The movie “Class Action” depicts the story of the trial in occasion of damages resulting from the use of defective vehicles. The lawsuit was filed against Argo Motors, one of the largest automobile corporations; it neglected the tests on the safety of manufactured cars.
The Plaintiffs would be suing Argo Motors for defect in design. The Meridian cars that were designed and manufactured in 1985 had a problem with electro scheme; when the car was about to turn left but was it hit from the back, it started to burn. One of the Argo Motors employees who were testing the new model discovered this problem and reported it to his boss, but the top management made a decision that they will not replace the electro scheme. Thus, the management knew about the defect and that there was a predictable risk that their cars could pose when they were manufactured in accordance with the design and used as intended (Findlaw). Even if the cars are manufactured faultlessly and the best-quality materials are used in the process of manufacturing, they would still be inherently dangerous because there was an error in their design (Rotlaw.com).
The defense that Argo Motors could have would be a statute of limitations – if the person who became injured due to the defects of the Meridian car did not start a legal action within a certain period starting from the moment when that person became aware of the defect, then that person would not be able to sue the company later. It is highly doubtful that Argo Motors could have any other of the mentioned defenses (comparative negligence, abnormal use, or supervening event).
When the top management of Argo Motors became aware of the problem, they conducted the analysis of the potential risks. The employee who was responsible for risk analysis calculated that replacement of the electro schemes in 170 000 cars that were already manufactured at that moment would cost the company about 50 million US Dollars; at the same time he predicted that there will be approximately 150 car explosions due to the defective electro schemes and in case if all people who get injured apply to court and win the case, the company will have to pay them around 30 million US Dollars in total. While the second number was considerably lower, the management of Argo Motors decided not to replace the defective element. From the point of view of the company’s finance management, this may seem to be a good business choice because it enabled them to save 20 million US Dollars at the minimum, but taking into account that on the other side of the problem there were people’s life and health – then even the possibility to save several dozens of millions of US Dollars cannot be considered as a justified reason to doom hundreds of people to death.
As for ethical issues, there are many of them in the movie. One of such issues was hiding (and later destroying) the report about product safety by Maggie’s line manager Michael. Besides, creating a situation by the legal company representing the interests of Argo Motors where the lawyer of the plaintiff would be confronted by his daughter (the lawyer of the defendant) in order to make the lawyer of the plaintiff weaker is also not ethical. Regarding the situation when Maggie provided Jed (her father) the bean counter, it is necessary to state that it is highly controversial. From the point of view of the company where Maggie worked and which paid her money to represent and defend its interests, it was unethical to do such an action; on the other side, from the point of view of general fairness Maggie did the right thing because it helped to restore justice.
Works Cited:
Findlaw. “Defects In Design – Findlaw”. N.p., 2016. Web. 14 Feb. 2016.
Rotlaw.com. “What Is A "Design Defect?” | Rottenstein Law Group LLP, 2016. Web. 14 Feb. 2016.
