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Honda lawsuit shines spotlight on East Texas attorneys

CBS news to feature Henderson lawyer today

A preliminary agreement reached in a case involving odometers in Honda vehicles has propelled a pair of East Texas attorneys into the national spotlight.
James Holmes is to be featured today on a segment of CBS morning news after crews from the show were in Rusk County last week filming the Henderson attorney demonstrating how odometers on Hondas have not been recording true mileage. The segment is scheduled to air about 7:40 a.m., he said.
Holmes said he worked on the case with Stephen Woodfin of Kilgore. Woodfin was not available for comment Monday, according to a representative of his office.
"With 6.1 million people represented in the class action (lawsuit), this is the largest case I've been involved in," Holmes said Monday afternoon. He said the CBS news crew spent two days with him and his clients last week stemming from a lawsuit that claimed odometers on Honda vehicles were inflated for the number of miles actually driven by 2.5 percent to 4 percent.
Demonstration of a Honda odometer compared with another vehicle was included in the segment.
While acknowledging no wrongdoing in the settlement agreement, Honda said "in the interest of customer satisfaction," it has voluntarily agreed to expand by 5 percent its mileage-based agreements with people who bought or leased Honda or Acura vehicles in the United States, Puerto Rico or the U.S. Virgin Islands between April 13, 2002, and Nov. 7.
The expanded agreements include warranties, lease mileage-based limitations and extended vehicle service contracts for certain 2002 through 2006 Honda and Acura vehicles and some of the 2007 Honda Fit models.
Under the terms of the settlement, consumers who incurred out-of-pocket expenses as a result of the odometer defects — either because they had to pay for repairs that should have been covered by warranties or were charged for excessive mileage on leased vehicles — can apply for reimbursement.
For example, an owner who has a qualifying vehicle with a 36,000-mile warranty would have that extended by 1,800 miles under the settlement agreement. Holmes said about 6.1 million consumers could benefit from the settlement.
"And that number is growing daily," Holmes said.
Besides the CBS coverage, Holmes said he has been interviewed by USA Today, PBS, public broadcasting in Canada, a wire service providing information to France, Europe and Asia and numerous American newspapers and broadcast outlets.
"It's been amazing the amount of interest this has generated," he said.
U.S. District Judge T. John Ward gave preliminary approval Nov. 7 to an agreement that settles two combined actions against American Honda Motor Co., Honda Motor Co., the Nippon Seiki Co. and New Sabina Industries. Ward has said he will make a decision on the fees and render final judgment at the hearing scheduled for 9 a.m. May 30 in the U.S. District courthouse in Marshall.
Longview attorney G.R. Randy Akin said he represented Nippon Seiki, a company that did design work on the odometers, and New Sabina Industries, which did assembly work on the odometers.
"Both of them will be dismissed from the suit," Akin said Monday. "My clients are paying nothing."
Akin referred additional comments to Honda attorney David Peim with a law firm in Torrance, Calif., who could not be reached for comment after three attempts.
Representatives of Honda would not comment, but the company did release a prepared statement.
"Although the odometer specifications for these vehicles were within current industry standards, Honda determined that some of its odometers may have slightly overstated vehicle mileage," Honda said in a statement.
The lawsuit arose after Jay Kutchka, an attorney in Fort Smith, Ark., began investigating odometers on Honda vehicles after he received a complaint more than four years ago.
Kutchka's suspicion that odometers in certain Honda vehicles were inaccurate led to additional investigation. As alleged in the complaints, the odometer defects deprived consumers who purchased Hondas of the full benefit of the warranties on their vehicles and caused consumers who leased Hondas to pay for excessive mileage.
Kutchka had participated in class action lawsuits in the past on the defense side and believed he needed someone with experience on the plaintiff side if he pursued a lawsuit against Honda. He contacted a former college classmate, David B. Miller of Dallas.
It was Miller who recommended they contact Henderson's Holmes, who Miller knew had experience in class action lawsuits from the plaintiff's side. Holmes said he suggested adding Kilgore's Woodfin to the team working on the case.
"He and I have been working together on a lot of cases for about 10 years," Holmes said.
The four attorneys filed their lawsuit in April 2004 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas and added Nippon Seiki and New Sabina as defendants in October 2005.
Holmes said Honda has agreed to reimburse customers for 100 percent of the repair bills covered under the settlement.
"So far, for the ones I've seen, those are averaging about $500 each with some as high as $1,500," Holmes said. For customers leasing from Honda, the amounts appear to be averaging in the $250 to $300 range but some will go considerably higher, he said.
Customers could start receiving their checks sometime this summer after a 30-day period for filing appeals after the May 30 final decision is reached. Holmes said he does not anticipate appeals in the case.
He and other attorneys could share fees up to $9.5 million in fees for the class action settlement plus as much as $300,000 for verified expenses.
"Our fee is time-based on the number of hours worked with the court having the discretion of moving it up or down depending upon the job it thinks we've done," Holmes said.
He said the problem pre-dates 2002 Honda models, but attorneys could not include owners of models before that. Holmes said he and associated lawyers are looking into similar allegations of odometer readings being off with another automaker.