Lawsuits you should know about

If you have purchased a lawnmower from Sears in the last fourteen years, you may be interested in some recent lawsuits filed against the company. A class action suit was filed in Scranton, Pennsylvania on October 16th against Sears and other manufacturers including Toro, Honda, Deere & Company, Kohler Co., and Electrolux Home Products, Inc for fraud. The lawsuit claims that the lawnmowers were sold with labels stating that the engines produced a high horsepower than they actually did. This includes labels listing the gross horsepower of the mower, which is theoretically the maximum horsepower, but not as accurate as the net horsepower. Other lawsuits have been filed in New Jersey, Illinois, and Texas with the same claims.

The defendants of the lawsuits were all members of the “Power Labeling Task Force” in 2001. That group met to discuss how to misrepresent horsepower to consumers as well as conceal horsepower fraud. The group suggested putting a disclaimer on the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute (OPEI) web page titled “Understanding Horsepower” which would mislead consumers as to horsepower issues. The group then created the labeling standard “SAE J1940” to conceal the fact that the horsepower listed on the lawnmower was less than consumers would probably get from the product. The SAE J1940 label allowed manufacturers to up the horsepower as much as 15% more than could be produced.

The class action lawsuit also claims the group decided to use standard “SAR J1995,” which allowed manufacturers to list gross horsepower on labels. The gross horsepower of the lawnmower is less than the net horsepower unless used under specific laboratory conditions, but because it seems like a more powerful number, it was believed that it could be used to deceive the consumers.

Some of the lawnmowers involved in the lawsuit were sold under the names of Craftsman, Cub Cadet, Troy Bilt, Yard-Man, Yard Machines, Bolens, White Outdoor, Lawn-Boy, Exmark, Poulan, Poulan PRO, Weed Eater and Husqvarna. If you purchased one of these brands of lawnmowers from Sears since 1994, you may want to contact a lawyer to see if your mower may be involved in the lawsuit.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 21st, 2008 at 10:59 am and is filed under Lawsuits. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.